Red Riding Hood and the Stranger
by Valarie Cleremont
Summary: <html><head></head>Scarlet's village is plagued by a werewolf, has been for three generations. Whilst out hunting one day, Scarlet meets a handsome strange who wishes to visit her village. But we all have skeletons in the closet, and Scarlet might change her mind about the stranger once she starts digging through his.</html>
1. Chapter 1

**_Even A man who is pure of heart,  
>and says his prayers by night.<br>May become a wolf, when the wolfbane blooms.  
>And the moon is full and bright. <em>**

**Streaks of red and black disturb the eerie stillness of the collaged greens that expand throughout the forest. Light seeps through the large canopy that seems to cover the whole forest, casting shadows onto the lime green undergrowth of the forest floor. Scarlet, a local village girl sprints over thickets of thorny briars and fallen branches as she races through the wild valley, like she's done so many times before. Her crimson red coat and hood swims In the air behind her as she runs. ****Scarlet lifts her face up as she stops running and starts walking, letting the light and shadow dance across her skin. The early morning birds hum and sing their sweet melody whilst gliding from tree branch to tree branch. Scarlet Inhales the earthy smells surrounding her and continues her way further into the dark, ever-growing abyss of greens and browns. To anyone else in Scarlet's village, the forest makes people retreat back to their man-made wooden boxes they call houses, but to Scarlet, all the smells, sounds and scenery make her want to run deeper into it, exploring every valley and mountain. Which Scarlet would gladly do if not for the shining white orb that hangs in the darkening blue night sky; calling forth the monsters that are created from its silvery white light. Unlike most villages, Scarlet's is plagued by a monstrous beast that feeds on the blood of the villagers and their livestock. A werewolf. Every full moon, during wolfstime, the villagers lock themselves away inside their prison like houses, hide their children, and pray that the beast doesn't get past the fortified wall the encases the entire village. Scarlet treads lightly as she approaches her usual hunting grounds, bow in hand with the string pulled halfway out in case unexpected game comes her way. The crunching of fallen leaves is barely audible beneath Scarlet's soft, brown leather knee length boots as she creeps up hill towards a downward slope, where rabbits usually lounge around.  
>At the top of the ridge Scarlet scans the sloping basin, only to be disappointed. Besides the over grown shrub-life the basin is barren. <strong>

** "****Damn." Scarlet whispers to herself, pouting at her uneventful start to her morning. She continues along the rim of the basin, stopping every now and again to examine her surroundings. When she reaches an old, deformed maple tree that splinters out four main branches, creating a perch like area in the centre of the tree, she slides her unfired arrow back Into her quiver and slings her bow over her shoulder and at tempts to find the right footing. She finally reaches her perched area after about five minutes of slipping and climbing. The perched area proved to be higher up than she had expected. She pulls her bow and quiver of f her back and reclines into the largest splintering-out branch so that she has the best view of the sun-dappled valley below. She loosens her black corset slightly so that it makes it easier to lay against the branch. She whistles along with the birds chirping around her as she pulls an apple out of her cloak pocket, she slides her father's hunting knife out of its holder that's wrapped around her left thigh and starts slicing wedges of apple and lifting them to her lips. When she finishes the apple she places the core next to her instead of throwing it to the ground, in case it scares away lurking prey. The sun slowly rises higher and the village bells begin to ring. Scarlet whistles the six note tune twice, glancing in the direction of the town, but ****is** **unable to see it through all the layers of forest in between them. The bells ring every morning of wolfstime to let the villagers know that it is safe to come out, ****even** **though everyone knows the beast returns to its cave in the mountains before the first lights of dawn even reach the horizon, most villagers wait inside until the bells sound there tune. But there are a handful of hunters that leave at the same time as Scarlet, they usually travel together in a pack in case the beast still lingers in the shadows of the village, but Scarlet prefers to hunt alone. She enjoys the peace of the woods better when there's no-one there to spoil it for her, and as for the beast, Scarlet doesn't fear it like the rest of the village. No-one has actually seen it in over 10 years and the last human life to be taken by it was over 20 years ago. Yes, a few cows and chickens are found slaughtered every now and again but the town agrees that it is a small price to pay in exchange for their lives being spared.  
>Scarlet's attention is quickly drawn to a small opening on the other side of the basin, where a deer cautiously steps into the clearing. <strong>**_You beautiful creature. _****Scarlet thinks to herself, overwhelmed with joy, as she quickly but silently slings her quiver back over her shoulder and draws two arrows. She places one in the bow and the other in her mouth, in case it takes two shots to take the deer down. She's never taken down a deer by herself before, only once before with her father. She draws the arrow back and prepares to fire, still amazed at the fact that she was getting a shot at a deer, and especially in wolfstime. As she breathes in and is seconds from releasing her arrow, the sound of leaves and twigs crunching and snapping distract both the deer and Scarlet. A human figure slowly emerges into the clearing about hundred metres away from the tree where Scarlet is perched. Scarlet's eyes are a blazed with fury, see immediately focus her attention back onto the deer, who has also notice the figure emerge from the woods and has already begun to flee back in the direction it came. Scarlet fires her arrow and reloads her next one instantly, the first shot barely misses the deer's leg, but Scarlet doesn't even have time to moan over her miss. She fires the second arrow, missing it by centimetres again. The deer sprints back into the woods out of sight. Scarlet's mouth hangs open, a gaped with shock.  
>"I missed. How could I miss? It was right there…" She complains to herself. Her eyes then travel over to where the stranger had emerged from the treeline, he was still there looking in the same direction where the deer had fled back into the woods. Scarlet flings her bow back over her should and starts climbing down from her little perch. When she's halfway down she jumps the rest of the way, landing less than graceful but still on her feet.<br>"Hey!" She screams to get the strangers attention. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" She stalks over to the figure, who also has started to approach Scarlet. **

** "****Um…walking." A man answers. **

** "****Well your ****_walking_**** just cost me and my family dinner for the next few nights!" Scarlet exclaims. Fury dripping like venom off each syllable. **

** "****Well, I'm sorry about that. If I had known that someone was hunting it I would have stayed back." The man and Scarlet only stand a few metres apart now. She's never seen this man before, he's rather tall with broad shoulders. His raven black hair hangs messily around his face, while his close-cut, bristly beard frames his square jawline. Scarlet stares directly into his memorizing eyes. Hazel orbs that look like autumn has adverted its touch into them, with a tinge of golden dust to make them even more radiant. Scarlet forgets her anger for a slight second while staring into his eyes but quickly regains her fierce composure when she remembers that she's never seen this man before. **

** "****Wait, you're not from around here, are you?" She places her hand on her hunting knife. "Nobody visits our village. Ever." Scarlet stands firm and observes that her new acquaintance has a large bag thrown over his shoulder. The man cocks an eyebrow and smirks at Scarlet griping the knife attached to her leg. **

**"****Why not? What's so scary about your village?" He inquires. **

** "****We're cursed." Scarlet says simply. Which only makes the man more curious. **

**"****Really? Care to elaborate?" He smirks. Scarlet squints her eyes in a questioning way. ****_Does he really not know? _****Scarlet thought everyone knew of her village's curse, and that was the reason no-one ever visited, they're either too scared to venture into the surrounding forest or the beast got to them first. **

** "****Our village is plagued by a werewolf. It attacks on every full moon at wolfstime." Scarlet walks around the stranger, his eyes widen slightly and what appears to be fear, engulfs his curious expression, but only for a second. "Last night was the first night of wolfstime for this month, so how did you get here and why are here?" Scarlet grips her knife tighter when she stands back in her original spot. **

** "****Are you always so inquisitive?" The stranger's curious composure returns and he grins, revelling perfectly straight white teeth that have an eerie sharpness about them. **

** "****Only when I have to be." Scarlet says bluntly. **

**"****Well then. I walked here and the reason I came here is because I travel a lot. Your village was just the next in my line." The man smiles but Scarlet just continues to squint her eyes in a questioning manner. **

**"****You want to visit our village? Why would anyone in their right mind want to visit our village, and especially at wolfstime?" Scarlet asks herself as well as the stranger. The man brushes off the insult and narrows his eyes to match Scarlet's expression. **

** "****Well dearie, I wasn't aware of your werewolf situation until just now, and if I'd known about it soon perhaps I mightn't have come." Scarlet looks a little taken back by his tone. "And if your wolf problem is so bad that nobody visits your little village, then why are you out in the woods all by yourself?" He folds his arms across his hard chest. Scarlet smirks at the man's question. She's not used to people speaking back to her or questioning her actions. **

** "****The wolf doesn't scare me and it only comes out at night." Scarlet matches his stance, letting go of the hilt of her knife and folding her arms across her chest. The man laughs slightly, looking slightly amused at Scarlet's statement. **

** "****Is that so?" The man walks around Scarlet. Scarlet doesn't take her eyes off him for a second. **

**"****It is." She places he hand back on the hilt of her knife. **

**"****Well maybe you should be scared. Werewolves are extremely dangerous and their presence isn't to be taken lightly." The man's tone turns serious. **

** "****You seem to know a fair bit about werewolves." Scarlet observes. **

** "****Let's just say I've had my fair share of experiences with werewolves." The man stops walking and looks flatly at Scarlet. Scarlet stops herself from asking more questions but her curiosity continues to grow. "Now, if you would be so kind as to show me the way to your village, I've been traveling for many days now and do hope to get some rest." Scarlet cocks her head to the side. She hadn't expected him to ask that but she felt oblige to see that this stranger makes it the rest of the way in one piece. She knows better than anyone that these woods are hard to navigate and one step in the wrong direction could mean your death. She rolls her eyes and reluctantly let's go of the hilt of her knife, deciding that the strange man isn't a threat to her, for now. **

** "****All right. It's this way." Scarlet cautiously walks around he companion and strides into the woods with him in tow. **

**"****Thank you." He sincerely says as he follows the red hood in front of him. "I'm Luca by the way. Your name?" He asks, quickening his pace so that he's walk alongside her. **

** "****I'm Scarlet, but every calls me Red." She says proudly. **


	2. Chapter 2

**_Chapter Two_**

**_The_****_re _****_are_** **_no_** **_strangers_** **_in_** **_the_** **_world_****_.  
><em>****_Only_** **_friends_** **_that_** **_you_** **_haven't_** **_meet_****_. _**

**Luca walks beside Scarlet. Her red hood sways side to side as she walks. He wonders why he didn't notice her perched up in the tree sooner. Her ruby red hood makes her stick out like a sore thumb against the mixed array of greens that morph into one another. Scarlet glances warily over at Luca a couple of times, and when she does she finds Luca staring intently at her as if he is studying her. Luca allows his eyes to linger in Scarlet's alluring emerald green ones when she glances over at him. He's never seen such beauty before, the way her piecing emerald eyes seem to penetrate his rough exterior and into the tormented soul that hides beneath, the way lose pieces of her dark brown hair streaked with black sway in the early morning breeze. He can feel the heat of her blush when she turns away to hide her expression of embarrassment when she catches him staring at her. **

**"****So, how long have you been living with your werewolf problem?" Luca temporarily pulls is mind away from studying the beauty of the red coated girl leading him to the village, and starts worrying about what problems he'll have to face when arrives in town. **

**"****My whole life. The town has been living with it for three generations now." Red glimpses back at him for a second. As soon as her emerald green eyes flicker forward again, Luca lets fear and irritation cover his complexion. Three generations wasn't what he wanted to hear. The longer a single bloodline of wolves stay in the same are, the more territorial they become. **

**"****That's a long time. Has anyone tried to get rid of it?" His curious composure instantly returns the second Scarlet glances back at him. **

**"****About twenty odd years ago. A group of men got drunk at the tavern and decided to hunt it during wolfstime." Scarlet pauses. "They're all dead now." She says frankly, but Luca can hear a slight bit of sadness in her underlying tone. **

**"****So no one ever tried again?" Luca ****asks****.**

**"****Nope.** **Now** **we** **just** **live** **in** **fear** **and** **hide** **ourselves** **away** **during****wolfstime." ****Scarlet** **just** **shrugs****. ****Luca** **re-focuses his attention on** **studying** **her again, deciding that no amount of thinking and planning is going to prepare him for what awaits in the village. "So, where did you come from?" Scarlet asks curiously. **

**"****Um…I came up from Northpearl. It's this little town by the sea, about two weeks walk from here." Luca points in the direction but Scarlet just keeps her head forward. She cocks her head to the side and stares cautiously into the forest to her left. Luca also looks in the same direction, wondering what stole her attention away from him. He pricks his ears up and re-directs his attention to the surrounding forest. His eyes blaze open when his sharp earring picks up on the snapping of twigs to their left. ****_How could I be so careless?_**** Luca punishes himself for letting himself get distracted by the red hooded beauty. He resists the urge to growl in the twig snapping direction. In two blurred movements Scarlet has her bow loaded with an arrow and is prepared to fire at any given second. Luca figures that she must have seen something that he didn't because she fires and the arrow hits a tree. Someone yelps as a blurred figure falls to the ground behind the tree that is next to the one that Scarlet hit. **

**"****Next one's to the head!" Scarlet yells as she draws another arrow from her quiver.**

**"****Don't shot! Don't shot! It's me. It's me." The figure quickly crawls to his feet and makes his way towards Scarlet and Luca. **

**"****I know." Scarlet says firmly as she points her loaded arrow towards the young man climbing his way out of the thorny under-bush of the forest floor. **

**"****You knew, but you fired at me anyway." The man stands up straight and brushes broken twigs and leaves off himself while eyeing off Luca, who stands directly behind Scarlet. Scarlet lowers her bow and relaxes the string. **

**"****Well that will teach you not to sneak up on me." Scarlet scowls. **

**"****Who's this?" The man asks, completely ignoring what Scarlet had just said. **

**"****This is Luca. He's visiting the village." Scarlet glances over her shoulder at Luca. **

**"****Why?" The man asks bluntly, not taking his eyes off Luca, worrying about how close he is standing to Scarlet. **

**Scarlet opens her mouth to respond but Luca cuts her off before she can. "I'm just passing through. Hoping I can find some work for a while." Luca announces gruffly, letting go of the growl that was forming in his throat. **

**"****It's wolfstime." The man steps closer to Scarlet, wanting to pull her away from the stranger standing behind her. **

**"****I've already filled him in. He didn't know beforehand." Scarlet informs their new companion. **

**"****Didn't your parents ever warn you about talking to strangers, Red? He could be dangerous." The man finally drops his gaze from Luca's and looks at Scarlet. **

**"****Thank you for your concern Grey, but I can take care of myself." Scarlet exclaims at Grey, throwing her bow of her shoulder and crossing her arms over her chest. Luca laughs lightly at Scarlet's retort to Grey who looks a little taken back by her behaviour. Grey clearly looked embarrassed, obviously he had expected her to go with him instead of continuing to escort the mysterious stranger through the woods, Luca observes.**

**"****Red…I really think it's unwise…" Grey goes to grab Scarlet by the arm but she flinches away, slightly bumping into the hard figure standing behind her. Luca lightly grazes her arm to steady her in case she needs the support. "Red!" Grey growing more embarrassed by the moment, as Scarlet continues to lean towards Luca instead of him. **

**"****I can handle myself!" Scarlet barks back, taking Luca by the hand and dragging him past Grey and further into the woods. **

**"****Red!" Grey calls after her and starts to chase after them. **

**"****Go home Grey, and stop following me." Scarlet yells as she lets go of Luca's hand and quickens her stride, ducking under low hanging branches, jumping over large protruding roots and thorny thickets. Luca follows her eagerly, avoiding the protruding wildlife with ease, as if he's a part of it. He glances back to notice that Grey has stopped his pursuit. **

**"****Are you all right?" Luca asks as he matches her stride and walks alongside her. Scarlet looks up at him and into his mesmerizing autumn eyes. **

**"****Yes I fine." Scarlet mumbles, stealing her eyes away from his. **

**"****If you don't mind me asking, who was he?" Luca notices that sadness masks Scarlet's fury as it engulfs her expression. **

**"****His name is Grey. He's a huntsman." Scarlet says spitefully. "We grew up together and that is all I wish to say. I don't plan on giving you my whole life's story." Luca smiles at her stubborn tone. **

**"****Alright, I understand. So…is the rest of the village as hostile as the both of you." He gestures to Grey. **

**Scarlet doesn't glance over at him, instead she just keeps her eyes straight. "We don't trust strangers." Her voice fierce. Luca becomes a little saddened at Scarlet's defensiveness, he's used to women fawning over him and tending to his every need. But no matter, he was up for a challenge. **

** "****Maybe one day we won't be." Luca smiles as they both approach a giant wooden and stone wall. **

**"****Depends on how long you plan on sticking around for." Scarlet looks up at the might of the wall. "Welcome to hell." Scarlet jokes but there's something serious in her voice. They walk through the large village gates, attracting a lot of attention from the unwelcoming crowd. Quick glances soon turn into lingering stares and quiet murmurs rapidly turn into loud gossip. Scarlet laughs quietly to herself while Luca ignores the overwhelming attention that he is receiving. "I'll take you to the inn. You're on your own from there." Scarlet leads him through the winding streets and alleyways, where people stare down on them from their overhanging balconies. Luca was used to be people being curious and cautious around him when he first moved into a village, but this was ridiculous. A crowd now started to follow them. **

**"****We've got company." Luca mumbles, slightly leaning over to Scarlet. Scarlet turns her head slightly to see the slowly growing crowd of shuffling villagers that follow curiously behind them. **

**"****Told you we don't trust strangers." Scarlet smiles underneath her red hood. Luca catches a glimpse of her smile but that's all it is, a glimpse. He wishes she would smile for him, like she would if she were laughing. Luca then imagines what her laugh would sound like. "Here we are." Scarlet waves to a man standing in front of an old decrepit, wooden building that only stands two storeys high. The man starts mumbling something to a small old women who had wandered over as she saw Scarlet and the stranger approaching.  
>"Mr Coppard." Scarlet shouts and waves again. This time he waves back. "He owns the inn." Scarlet mumbles to Luca who nods in acknowledgement. <strong>

**"****Good morning Red. Who is your friend?" Mr Coppard asks as he examines Luca precariously. **

**"****This is Luca, he's from…um." Scarlet turns to Luca. "Sorry, where are you from again?" Luca smirks at her forgetfulness and faces the old couple standing in front of him. **

**"****Northpearl." Luca extends his hand to the innkeeper who reluctantly takes it. "I've been traveling for some time now and I've been informed that you run this…" Luca looks up at the crumbling, wreak of a building. "Fine establishment and I was wondering if you have a room available." Luca smiles at the bewildered pair, who continuously switch their gaze from Luca to one another. **

**"****A room?" Mr Coppard asks in a puzzled tone. "You want a room here?" Luca nods his head. Mr Coppard throws Scarlet a puzzled look as well, not knowing whether to be excited to have a customer or to be suspicious of a the stranger. "But it's wolfstime." Mr Coppard looks at Scarlet when he says this and then turns back to Luca. **

**"****Um…he wasn't aware of the beast until I told him in the woods." Scarlet chimes in looking from Luca to the innkeeper. **

**The innkeeper's eyes widen as he glares at Luca. "You're very lucky to be alive. No one has been known to roam these woods during wolfstime at night and come out in one piece." The innkeeper squints his eyes has he re-examines Luca in detail. **

**"****I guess I got lucky." Luca smiles despite the hostility. Luca soon feels a tingling heat surge through his back, the same tingling he gets whenever another child of the moon stares at him. He turns his head in the direction of the heat only to find a large crowd of people huddling together underneath the shelter of their balconies, which hold even more onlookers. The whole scene makes Luca think of a flock of vultures clinging to leafless, dead, bonelike tree branches as they wait for their prey to die. Luca studies the crowd with his eagle eyed sight but the heat fades away before he can locate the person he's looking for. He turns back to face the innkeeper, ignoring the hungry vultures that linger behind him. **

**"****Yes. Very lucky." Mr Coppard scrutinizes. **

**"****So is there a room available that I may rent from you?" Luca's calm and charming façade slowly begins to diminish has his annoyance and weariness grow. The innkeeper cocks an eyebrow and turns to his female companion beside him.**

**"****I'll see what I have." The innkeeper mumbles and walks over to the door. "Wait here." He calls back to Luca, whilst the short old lady follows Mr Coppard into the inn. **

**"****Well then." Scarlet huffs. Luca turns to her. "I'll be off then." Scarlet nods her head to Luca and goes to turn away. **

**"****Wait." Luca restrains himself from grabbing her arm. "How much would you have made with that deer?" Luca asks whilst fiddling around in his pocket.**

**"****At least a silver piece." Scarlet shrugs, still slightly upset that she had come home empty handed. A sliver piece might not seem like much but in Scarlet's village you could by a month's supply of food with it. **

**"****Well then." Luca pulls two silver coins from his pocket. "Take these." He holds them out for Scarlet to take. **

**"****I said one silver." Scarlet stares at the coins, more than happy to take one since he made her lose the deer.**

**"****The second is for escorting me." Luca smiles as Scarlet hesitantly takes the coins from his hand. "And I apologize again for making you miss your shot." Luca bows his head. **

**"****It's fine. You've made up for it." She tosses the coins up and catches them again in her palm. "Thanks." She smiles briefly and walks away. Luca watches the red hood float carelessly in the early morning breeze until it floats out of sight, down a small alleyway. Luca turns as the innkeeper catches his eye. **

**"****I have a room." He says. "I suppose we can discuss rent later." Mr Coppard throws Luca the key who catches it easily. They both forward into the inn, leaving behind the mob of vultures. **


	3. Chapter 3

**_Chapter Three _**

**_Sometimes our thoughts can do  
>more damage than blades.<em>**

**Scarlet walks slowly as she continues to toss the silver coins up in the air and then catch them again. She tucks the coins away in her pocket as she approaches her little cottage at the end of the village. Her family's house is quite isolated from the rest of the town, sitting on the border, surrounded by trees, with every neighbouring building having its back turned to the old cottage. It isn't much to look at, but then again neither is the rest of the town. Scarlet's cottage stands a small two storeys high with giant metal spikes lining the guttering and the exterior walls of the house, iron bars criss-cross across every window and undisturbed bear traps lay camouflaged in front of the rickety old steps that lead up to the creaky old porch. Scarlet pushes her hood off her head as she approaches the death trap house and pulls her rushed coal-black and chestnut braid over her shoulder. **

**"****Red!" The front door flies open and Scarlet's mother leaps out the door and over the bear traps. "Red!" She yells and runs to her daughter. Scarlet observes her mother's fearful expression and the distress in her horse-like voice and becomes immediately instilled with dread. **

**"****Oh God…" Scarlet's voice goes a little high pitched with tears forming in her emerald eyes as her mother flings herself around her daughter. "What's happened?" Scarlet doesn't hug her mother but instead pulls her off and forces her to look her in the eye. "Are you alright? Is it grandmother?" Scarlet's eyes widen as she tries not blink, as she knows tears will stream down her face if she does. "Oh God, has something happened to Jackson?" Worry and fear tie a knot in her stomach. Her mother clutches the side of Scarlet's face.**

**"****Your brother and grandmother are fine. It's you I'm worried about!" Her mother pulls her into her embrace, holding her by the neck and head. The knot in Scarlet's stomach loosens slightly as her mother continues to stroke the back of her head like a dog. **

**"****Me?" Scarlet pushes herself out of her mother's strong grip. "Why?" She looks over her mother's shoulder to see a man emerge from the dark entrance of their house. Grey. **

**"****Grey came and told me that you met a stranger in the woods and that you took off with him." Her mother's pale, jade green eyes franticly search her daughter's body for any sign of injury or attack. Grey walks down the steps and jumps over the bear traps. Oh, how much Scarlet wished his leg would get caught in it. "Did he hurt you?" Her mother asks but doesn't wait for an answer before spinning Scarlet around to examine the back of her.**

**"****No he didn't. Mother… please. I'm fine." Scarlet insists as she tries to pull away from her mother's reach. "Grey should learn to keep his mouth shut." She says loud enough for Grey to hear. **

**"****Scarlet! Don't blame Grey, I'm glad he came and told me. What were you thinking? Talking to strangers and then taking off with them?" Scarlet was amazed at how quick her mother's emotions changed from frantically worried to disappointedly cranky. **

**"****I'm glad to see you're back in one piece." Grey chirps when he's standing next to them. Scarlet rolls her eyes and rubs her temples. **

**"****Yes, thank you for your concern, but I'm fine." Scarlet folds her arms across her chest. **

**"****You could have been killed. He could have taken you away and no one would have a clue where you went." Grey began his lecture. "It's not safe for you to wander around the woods alone…" Scarlet's nostrils flare in anger and her eyes glare at Grey. She knew he was going to say that. **

**"****For the final time, I'm fine and I don't need you watching my every move. I can take care of myself!" Scarlet pushes her unshed tears away. **

**"****I agree with Grey." Scarlet's mother places her hands on her hips. "And what we're you thinking, choosing to go off with a stranger instead of your fiancé?" Her mother's voice becoming as fierce as Scarlet's. **

**"****Oh for heaven's sake. His name is Luca and I would gladly chose him over Grey any day!" Scarlet throws her hands up in the air and pushes past her mother and the glaring Grey, clearly showing that his ego had been badly damaged. **

**"****Don't you dare walk away from me young lady!" Her mother's kind-hearted worry was now a distant memory. Scarlet turns on her heel and scowls at the both of them. **

**"****Or you'll what? You've already sold me!" Scarlet screams at her mother, who glances over at Grey. "What more could you possibly do to make me miserable?" Scarlet's eyes sting with tears of anger as she bites the inside of her cheeks. **

**"****Miserable? Am I that repulsive?" Grey steps closer to Scarlet. "Red…I'm only trying to look out for you. To do what's best for you. Why can't you see that?" Grey steps another few steps closer. **

**"****Ha." Scarlet scoffs. "All you want to do is control me." Scarlet steps backwards so she's out of Grey's reach. "I will never be yours." Scarlet hisses and runs inside the old, creaky house, avoiding the hidden bear traps as she goes. She doesn't bother slamming the door as she sprints up the rickety old stairs, just wanting to put as much space as she possibly could in-between Grey and herself. She runs into her room and slams the door behind her, sliding to the ground and leaning against the heavy wooden door. Scarlet squeezes her eyes shut so that cold tears stream down her warm face, as she begins to sob lightly. She knows she'll regret her little tantrum later but right now she doesn't care. She just feels numb inside. She lost her father five years ago, she lost her uncle another two years later; and now her mother was arranging her marriage. To Grey. She feels like she's lost all control over her life. ****_If only papa were here. _****Scarlet thinks to herself as she pulls her bow and quiver off her back and chucks them onto her bed that sits against the wall across from her. She pushes herself off the floor and places a heavy beam across the door so that her mother can't come in. Or worse, Grey. Scarlet takes off her red hood and hangs it on hook next to the door, pulling the silver coins from her pocket she weighs them in her hand. She decides that it would be best if her mother doesn't know about the second coin, only because she knows that it will going straight towards her engagement. **

**"****Red?" A frail, old voice calls from the other side of the door. "Are you alright?" Her grandmother asks sweetly and with the up most concern seeping through her tone. Scarlet presses her body up against the door. **

**"****Are you alone?" She asks back with her ear pressed against the door.**

**"****Yes. Your mother is still outside." Her grandmother answers. Scarlet lifts the door beam and rests it against the door frame, opening the door to allow her grandmother entry. Her grandmother stands in the doorway with a pale blue dress on, and her black cloak draped around her shoulders. "I heard the yelling." Scarlet moves aside while her grandmother enters. "Are you all right?" Her grandmother is a lot like Scarlet, or more like Scarlet is a lot like her grandmother. Both have a stubborn attitude. Scarlet shuts the door but leaves the beam leaning against the doorframe. **

**"****I'm fine." Scarlet mumbles as she unties her knife-strap from her leg. Her grandmother cocks and eyebrow, as if to say 'oh please.' **

**"****Are you sure?" She sits down on the edge of the bed and gestures for Scarlet to sit next to her. Scarlet sighs as she collapses on the bed next to her grandmother, leaning on her shoulder as her grandmother wraps her arm around her. **

**"****I don't want to marry him." Scarlet's eyes begin to water again. "Why can't she see that?" **

**"****Oh darling, your mother is only doing what's best for you." He grandmother strokes the back of her head lightly. **

**"****Everyone keeps saying that they're doing what's best for me, but no-one stops to ask me what I think." Scarlet pulls away from her grandmother slightly. "I just want to be able to control my own life." **

**"****Sweetheart your mother…she…" Scarlet's grandmother trails off as she tries to think of the right thing to say. "Your mother loves you with all her heart. And she's only doing this so that you can have a good life. Grey is a respected young man with a good trade…and you have to admit that he is a little easy on the eye." Her grandmother nudges her with her shoulder but Scarlet just rolls her eyes.**

**"****I'm just as good as he is at hunting. I don't need his money." Scarlet runs her hands through her hair. **

**"****Honey, I know that you can take care of yourself. But every woman needs a man." Her grandmother takes Scarlet's hands in hers'.**

**"****But…" Scarlet starts.**

**"****But nothing…honey, you know I don't like seeing you upset but I think if you just knock down one of those walls of yours and talk to Grey, then maybe you might start to like him." **

**"****But I don't love him." Scarlet's emerald eyes glaze over with a glossy haze before she blinks and tears fall down her rosy cheeks. **

**"****I didn't love your grandfather when we first married but I grew to love him. Just as you'll grow to love Grey." Her grandmother wipes the tears from Scarlet's face. "Just give him a chance." Scarlet sighs again and reluctantly nods her head. **

**"****I'll try." Scarlet whispers and her grandmother kisses her on the cheek. **

**"****Thank you."**


	4. Chapter 4

**_Chapter Four _**

**_Like a Queen ascending to her throne,  
>The moon rises in the night sky.<br>All her subjects bow at her might,  
>As she sways the man to a beast.<em>**

**The last rays of light are dragged down to the horizon as the sun sets rather rapidly, as if it was running away from something. Villagers retreat to their prison-like houses with fright instilled on their faces, as darkness blankets the sky and the moon ascends to her throne. The night brings her music, as the crickets chirp, the owls hoot, and the bats scream. Predators linger in the shadow of the town's giant, fortified wall, waiting for unsuspecting prey to senselessly stroll past. But the most dangerous and terrifying of all predators, lingers within the fortified walls.**

**Scarlet's grandmother finishes packing up from dinner while her mother tries to get Scarlet's little brother Jackson to change into his night clothes.  
>"Hurry up Jackson! Don't make me come back up there." Scarlet's mother yells from the bottom of the stairs. Scarlet and her mother have been avoiding each other since this morning. Her grandmother convinced Scarlet's mother that yelling at her would only make that matter worse. <strong>

**"****I'm coming, I'm coming." Jackson says drearily as he stomps down the stairs. His mother wraps an arm around him and ushers him into the living room. **

**"****Red hurry up." Her mother yells as she unlocks the hidey-hole that lays hidden underneath the heavy oak table that sits in the middle of the room. A small two man, iron enforced trap, that Scarlet has been forced into every wolfstime since birth. **

**"****Red, help me with the door." Her grandmother tugs at her elbow. They both walk to the front door, each lifting a heavy beam which are much like Scarlet's in her room, except these ones are twice as heavy and are steel enforced. They place the beams across the door, locking it. Once locked they both move to the windows and shut the wooden shutters over the top of the iron bars, and slide another steal enforced bar across the shutters. "Are all the windows locked upstairs?" Her grandmother turns to her.**

**"****Yes I closed them before dinner." Scarlet replies as she shuffles into the living room. **

**"****Quickly now, in with your brother." Her mother helps Jackson into the trap as she gestures for Scarlet to join him. Scarlet hates the trap, always has. The first night that she had been left alone was when she was two, her mother had stayed with her until then. **

**"****Why can't I stay up her with two? I'm good with a bow, you know that." She glances back and forth between her mother and grandmother. "No one has seen the wolf in years. Is this even necessary anymore?" She gestures to the hole in the floor, where her brother sticks his head out from. Scarlet's mother looked horrified.**

**"****Of course this is necessary!" Her mother starts going red. "Now come here." Her mother holds her hand out for Scarlet.**

**"****No, I want to stay with two." Scarlet crosses her arms over her chest and looks at her grandmother for support, but she receives none.**

**"****Darling there are many things in this world that we agree on, but this is not one of them. Now go with your brother." Her grandmother picks up the two crossbows that were leaning against the wall and passes one to Scarlet's mother. Scarlet prepares herself to argue further but her thought process is interrupted by a howl. A loud, piecing howl makes the three women spin on their heels and face the front window. All the hairs on Scarlet's body stand up in shock. The howl is so haunting that it makes the blood drain away from the three women's faces, leaving them all white. It echoes so loudly throughout the house that it almost sounds like its being emitted from the room that they're all standing in. Jackson whimpers in fear.**

**"****Mama…" He weeps slightly but quickly wipes the tears away, trying to be as brave as he thinks his sister is.**

**"****Scarlet go with your brother! Now!" Her mother pulls her by the arm but she doesn't resist. Scarlet jumps down next to her brother. "Here, take this." Her mother passes her a hunting knife. "Don't come out till morning." Scarlet nods her head and closes the hatch and locks it from the inside. The small space becomes pitch black, so the pair aren't able to see anything.**

**"****Red…"Her brother trials off. **

**"****It's okay. We're going to be okay." She manages to cross her legs while Jackson sits on her lap. "It'll be fine." Scarlet tries to reassure her frightened brother but the fear in her own voice seeps through. She's only heard the howl once before, she was six and she's never forgotten it. The way it instilled terror into the hearts of men, made children cry and women scream. Scarlet was thankful that Jackson had never had the unpleasant pleasure of hearing it, until now. The howling gets louder and louder. The mumbled voices of their mother and grandmother soon get drowned out by the scratchy howling that grows closer and closer. **

**"****Scarlet!" He brother screams has he pulls himself into Scarlet's arms. The screeching of something being dragged across metal, claws at Scarlet's and Jackson's eardrums. With the breaking and splintering of wood everything goes quiet. "Scarlet…" Jackson whimpers as he slowly lifts his head up from Scarlet's shoulder. "Where is it?" He whispers in her ear. Scarlet's throat closes up like she's being choked, she doesn't want to answer, her heart is pounding so hard that she feels like her mother can hear it, or a beast. "Scarlet?" Jackson squeezes her shoulders when she doesn't answer. Scarlet wraps her arms around Jackson tighter and unsheathes the hunting knife. **

**"****Where…okay…" Scarlet breathes as something crashes into their iron trap from the outside. Scarlet tries to restrain from screaming for her brother's sake but she soon loses all control over her throat, as something continues to hit the side of the trap, over and over again. **

**"****It's there! It's going to get us!" Jackson screams and clenches Scarlet's shirt in his fists and continues to scream, as does Scarlet. Over the top of their screams Scarlet can hear the sound of metal being scraped away from the outer lining of the trap. Soon the wood starts to crack and splinter to the side of them. "Scarlet!" Jackson shrieks as splinters of wood burst inwards, revealing a small opening the size of someone's head. Scarlet turns slightly so she's facing the opening, with the knife out in front of her. In the centre of the blackness two yellow glowing dots appear. Eyes. The beast snarls and Jackson screams louder. "Go away! Go away!" Scarlet lets go of her brother so that she can reach up and unlock the hatch. She twists the lock around twice and the hatch flies open. With adrenaline and an extreme amount of fear coursing through her veins, Scarlet lifts her brother with one hand and basically throws him up and out of the trap. The light from the room above filters down and momentarily blinds Scarlet, she can still see the yellow orbs that stare intensely at her but she can't make anything else out over then blackness. She's too frightened to move, she just continues to sit there with her knees tucked up to her chin. She'd dropped the knife to her side when she lifted Jackson out. Her body remains paralysed with terror, her screaming ceases, and she just continues to stare back into the glowing yellow eyes that remain un-blinked since the time she had first laid her eyes on them. Two hands reach down and grab Scarlet by the shoulders and pull her up out of the trap. Scarlet falls into her rescuer's arms as her knees give way and the rest of body starts to shutdown in shock. **

**"****Scarlet!" Her mother shrieks. **

**"****Is she hurt?" Her grandmother kicks the trap door shut. **

**Scarlet is dragged over to the lounge where she is laid down. Grey stands over her. "You're okay…" He reassures has he examines her body for any wounds. "Red, can you hear me?" He asks as he grips the side of her cheek. Scarlet's eyes start to roll to the back of her head and her minds starts to go blank, every noise in the room turns into a dull hum and then into silence. "Red?" Grey shakes her shoulders. "Scarlet!" She still doesn't respond. **

**"****Scarlet!" Jackson claws at Grey's arm, trying to get to his sister. His grandmother pulls him off and hands him to his mother. **

**"****Move." She pushes Grey to the side and checks her granddaughter over. "She's unconscious. She'll be fine." She says and turns to Grey. "Kill it." Her voice is dripping with venom. Grey gives Scarlet one last quick glance to make sure that she is still breathing and then bolts out the door with his axe in hand. He joins the mob of hunters outside, he is given a torch and hunting party starts to move around the side of the house. Scarlet's mother shuts the door and locks it. **

**"****Is she going to be alright?" Her mother's voice is on the edge of tears. **

**"****She'll be fine. She's just in shock." Her grandmother lifts her legs and swings them onto the lounge, so that she's now laying down. "Get me a cloth and water." She tells her daughter who obliges immediately and runs to the kitchen, with Jackson in tow. Scarlet's grandmother places pillows behind her head and brushes strands of black and brown off Scarlet's pale white face. Jackson passes his grandmother a bowl of water while his mother hands her two cloths. **

**"****Jackson come here." His mother takes him by the hand and leads him over to the other side of the room where an old reclining chair sits in the corner. She sits down first and Jackson sits her lap. He buries his face into her shoulder and starts to weep again, his mother strokes the back of his head affectionately and watches as her mother places a wet cloth on her unconscious daughter's head. **

**"****I've never seen a beast as strong as that." Scarlet's grandmother mumbles. "It tore straight through all that metal, like it was nothing." Her grandmother says in disbelief. **

**"****They'll find it." Scarlet's mother says. Her grandmother nods in agreement with her daughter.**

**"****Yes." She says as she sits next to Scarlet. "It's laid quiet for so long." She buries her face in her hands. "I think it's sick of hiding." She moves the pillows out from under Scarlet's head and slides her head gently on to her lap. "The problem isn't finding it. It's killing it." **


	5. Chapter 5

**_Chapter Five _**

**_Sometimes things happen that are out of our control.  
>And sometimes there is nothing we can do to fix them.<em>**

**Everything is a blurred haze when Scarlet's eyes flutter open slowly, her surroundings slowing coming into focus. "Morning sleeping beauty." Scarlet rolls her head over to see her grandmother standing in the door way to her room. **

**"****What…happened?" She grabs her throat as it feels like she's swallowing tiny shards of glass as she speaks. **

**"****Here, drink." Her grandmother lifts a cup to her dry lips. Water flows down Scarlet's stinging throat, washing away the tiny shards of glass. "Better?" She asks and Scarlet nods slightly as she finishes the water. "Good." She says as she strokes the side of her granddaughter's face. Scarlet forces a smile across her lips but it only lasts for a second before every facial muscle she has starts to pull her lips into a grimace. Every fibre of her body begins to throb with a dull pain. Scarlet moans in agony and tries to sit herself up but her grandmother just pushes her back down. "Not so fast." She places pillows behind her head. **

**"****What happened?" Scarlet asks again, this time her voice is more audible. **

**"****The wolf attacked." She pauses. "It ripped through the side of house and made its way under the house until the trap. It ripped through that as well." Scarlet closes her eyes as the memories come rushing back. **

**"****I knew I hated the trap for a reason." Scarlet laughs slightly but her grandmother doesn't**

**"****Grey and his hunting party got here just in time. They heard the howling, like the rest of the town, and then heard you and your brother." She pushes wisps of black hair away from Scarlet's face. "Grey pulled you out of the trap and then went after the wolf." **

**"****Is he alright? Did they get it?" Scarlet forces herself to ask even though she's terrified of the answer. **

**"****Grey is fine, he's downstairs." She pauses. "And as for the wolf, it got away." Scarlet stares at the celling.**

**"****Okay…" Scarlet trails off, not knowing what to say. **

**"****Everyone's been coming by to see how you are." Her grandmother changes the subject.**

**"****Really?" Scarlet seems surprised.**

**"****Really." Her grandmother cocks an eyebrow in remembrance. "Oh, and a young man stopped by. A stranger, saying that his name was Luca." Scarlet can hear the lecture forming in her grandmother's throat. "You wouldn't know anything about him, would you?" Her grandmother leans over her. **

**"****Um…" Scarlet murmurs as she tries to pull a pillow over her head. **

**"****Scarlet?" Her grandmother says sternly and rips the pillow from her grip. **

**"****He was lost in the woods. So I showed him the way to the village." Scarlet reaches for another cup of water. "I left him at the inn and that was it." Scarlet sips her water and makes a face as if to say she's done nothing wrong. "What did he want anyway?" She asks as she places the cup back on the bedside table.**

**"****He said that he had heard that you had been attacked and he wanted to make sure that you were all right." She says. "He even brought over loaf of bread and a couple of rabbits." She says in a surprised tone. Scarlet raises her eyebrows.**

**"****Really? Why?" She wonders out loud. **

**"****He said something about, he couldn't find the deer. Whatever that means." Her grandmother shrugs but Scarlet smiles slightly. She can't help but think about those autumn-hazel eyes. They even got rid of the glowing yellow eyes that Scarlet thought she would never get out of her head. **

**"****That was nice of him." Scarlet folds down the blanket. "What did you think of him?" She asks her grandmother, who tries to keep a stern, disgraced expression on her face but her lips curl into a smile. She nudges Scarlet's shoulder.**

**"****He was…nice." She says. Scarlet laughs even though it hurts.**

**"****Just nice?" She questions, knowing that her grandmother would be agreeing with the fact that Luca is attractive.**

**"****Yes, nice." She says but her smile grows. "And maybe…a tiny bit good looking…" She says as she turns her head away from Scarlet. **

**"****Just a little bit?" She pushes her grandmother. **

**"****Okay, okay! He is very good looking." She gives in. "But you're not to tell anyone I said that." She turns stern again. Scarlet nods happily.**

**"****Secret's safe with me." She extends her pinkie finger to her grandmother, who takes it with hers. Scarlet looks over to the closed shutters of her window. "What time is it?" She yawns and slowly slides her legs out of bed.**

**"****It's early. About an hour past dawn." Her grandmother walks over to the window and opens the shutters, letting in the cold, bright light that makes Scarlet squeeze her eyes shut and rub them. "You've been out for a day." Her grandmother says. **

**"****What?" Scarlet exclaims and stands up too quickly, which makes the whole room spin. **

**"****Not so fast. You had a terrible experience and your body still needs to recover." Her grandmother steadies her by holding onto her arm. **

**"****I think my body has had enough recovery time." Scarlet says as the room stops spinning. "I think I'll go wash." She says as she pulls her arm from her grandmother's grip and walks out the door and into the bathroom, closing the door behind her. Scarlet slips out of her old night gown and wets a towel in a barrel of cool water. She wipes a layer of grime off her skin, rinses the towel, and repeats. When she finally feels clean, she gets a separate bucket of water and washes her hair.  
>She emerges from the bathroom a few minutes later with her night gown pulled loosely over the top of her as she walks back into her room. Her room is empty so she shuts and locks the door with the heavy beam. She peels off her dress again and throws it on the bed, pulling a blue and white dress from her cupboard. She pulls it on and begins to tighten the corset when there is a knock at the door. Thinking that it would be her grandmother, Scarlet removes the beam and opens the door without a word. Grey stands in the doorway. Scarlet immediately turns her back to him to finish tightening her corset and to pull up the white frills of the under shirt, so that her cleavage is covered. <strong>

**"****Sorry…" Grey stares at the ground with a giant smile on his face. Scarlet fights back a scowl as she knows that he's not. "How are you feeling?" Her asks and steps closer. **

**"****Better." Scarlet turns back around when her dress is fastened into place. "Thank you. For what you did." Scarlet forces the words out of her mouth, knowing that she would be dead right now if it wasn't for Grey. Oh, she wished that it wasn't Grey that had saved her. For some reason in the back of her mind, she secretly wanted Luca to save her. She quickly pushes that thought away because she knows that will never happen. **

**"****Of course. You didn't think that I would let anything happen to you, did you?" Grey grazes his fingers across Scarlet's cheek. **

**"****No, of course not." Scarlet steps away from him and walks over to her mother's old mirror, to fix her hair. Once brushed out her hair trails down her back until her waist. She begins to braid it while Grey continues to speak. **

**"****I know that we didn't leave things on a good note the other day." He begins whilst walking around Scarlet's room. Scarlet nods her head in agreement, to show that she's listening. "And I want to apologise for…" He sits on the edge of the bed. "How did you put it? Trying to control you." Scarlet rolls her eyes. "Am I forgiven?" Grey stands and glides over to Scarlet, putting his hands on her waist. **

**"****Yes you're forgiven." She says quietly, feeling uncomfortable with Grey touching her. "I suppose I overreacted. I'm sorry." Scarlet struggles with her words. Ever since they were announced to be engaged, simple conversations had become excruciating, and having to apologise to Grey made Scarlet feel like she was swallowing glass. Grey tightens his grip on her waist and ducks his head down so that his face is hovering over the crook neck.**

**"****I forgive you." Grey whispers in her ear as he inhales her scent of cleanliness and roses. "Why do you have to be so hostile all the time?" Grey wonders aloud. "Is this not simpler?" He brushes his lips over Scarlet's neck. Which feels like spiders are crawling across her skin. ****_Simpler? You mean me obeying your every word like a dog. _****Scarlet thinks but doesn't say it aloud, knowing that it will only cause another fight. A fight that she probably wouldn't win. **

**"****I should probably go thank everyone for their concern." Scarlet pulls away from Grey before he can move his lips anywhere else. Grey follows her out of her room slowly. "Grandmother?" She calls out she descends the stairs.**

**"****Down here darling." She calls from the kitchen. Scarlet glides into the kitchen with Grey trailing behind her. "How you feeling?" She asks sweetly as she looks up from the kitchen bench, where she is putting small cakes into a basket. **

**"****Better." She walks in while Grey stays in the large door way, reaching up and holding onto the top skirting board. "Where's mother and Jackson?" Scarlet leans on the bench to examine what her grandmother is doing. **

**"****They went for a walk. Jackson hasn't left the house since the attack. So your mother thought it would be best if they got some fresh air." Her grandmother smiles and passes her a muffin. Scarlet picks at the muffin in front of her. **

**"****Apple and cinnamon." She mumbles as she takes a bite. Her grandmother nods. **

**"****Muffin, Grey?" Her grandmother asks, extending a muffin in his direction. **

**"****No thank you." He taps the doorframe and walks into the kitchen, resting his hands on Scarlet's shoulders. "I think I'll be going. That is if you don't anything done?" He directs his question to Scarlet. **

**"****No, I'm fine. You can go join your hunting pack." Scarlet stares at her grandmother with unease. **

**"****Alright. If that is what the lady wishes." Grey kisses Scarlet on the top of the head. He nods at the elderly women across from him and leaves without another word, picking up his double sided axe that was leaning against the door frame, as he goes. When the door slams shut, Scarlet exhales loudly, not realising that she had been holding her breath. **

**"****Did you sort things out?" Her grandmother stares at her through jade green eyes. **

**"****We apologised to each other." She breathes through clenched teeth. **

**"****Good. He's been very worried about you." Her grandmother continues to fill the basket with muffins and apples. **

**"****I'm sure he has." Scarlet says spitefully as she picks up a red apple and takes a bite. **

**"****I thought we agreed that you would try to get along with him." Her grandmother stops what she's doing and leans on the table. **

**"****I am … it's just…" She picks a knife and cuts a wedge out of the apple. "He makes my skin crawl." She says as she looks her grandmother in the eye. **

**"****Sweetheart…" **

**"****I know, I know. I'll learn to love him." She cuts her grandmother off. "I just don't know how long that's going to take." She mumbles and stands up straight, not wanting to talk about Grey or marriage anymore. "What's this for." She nods at the basket. Her grandmother plays along and smiles slightly. **

**"****I thought I'd make little presents for the people who helped out while you were unconscious." She passes Scarlet the basket full of goodies. ****_Luca. _****Scarlet's eyes brighten as the thought runs through her head. She feels a little guilty for thinking about the stranger so much, but she can't seem to get him out of her head. Nevertheless, Luca had brought food to her family when she was ill, so that meant that he was on her list of people to thank. **

**"****Do you have a list for me?" She places the basket on the bench and sprints up the stairs to fetch her hood. **

**"****It's in the basket." By the time Scarlet flies back down the stairs, her grandmother has the basket in hand and is standing by the door. "Be careful." Her grandmother says as Scarlet takes the basket and kisses her grandmother on the cheek and leaps out the door. "And don't talk to strangers!" Her grandmother calls out playfully. Scarlet laughs and shouts over her shoulder. **

**"****I make no promises!" **


	6. Chapter 6

**_Chapter Six _**

**_We all have a beast inside us  
>that claws at the surface<br>and makes us question our sanity. _**

**Wooden floor boards creak and moan like an old man taking his last breaths, as the wind whistles through the breaks in the decrepit structure. Mice cower away in their holes like men at wolfstime, too terrified to move, as the presence of a beast lingers within the room. Even in sleep Luca's ears twitch and prick up as the light taps of footsteps approach the decaying wooden door. Luca's eyes snap open like lightning flashing in the night sky, as the tapping of feet stop in front of his door. He leaps out of bed, not making a sound despite the creaking boards that moan with the slightest disturbances. Two sharp knocks threaten to break the door in. Luca inhales the air that seeps in through the splinter size cracks in the door. Roses, apples, trees, and morning dew that is drizzled across the forest floor. Growing impatient, the visitor knocks again. Luca opens the door, which reveals a girl in a crimson red hood. **

**"****You're looking better." Luca observes as he leans against the crumbling doorframe. Scarlet stands shyly, holding her basket with both hands in front of her. "What have I done to be graced with your presence so early in the morning?" Luca crosses his arms of his hard, bare chest, as he runs his autumn eyes up and down Scarlet. Scarlet blushes at her half naked companion, allowing her eyes to swallow every bit of exposed, muscular terrain. **

**"****Um…" Scarlet's train of thought derails completely when she looks up into his autumn coloured eyes that shine with specks of gold. Luca smiles smugly, showing his eerily sharp teeth, which seem a little sharper to Scarlet then what they were the first time that they met. "I…um." Scarlet shuts her eyes as she tries to concentrate. "I brought you this." She holds the basket out for Luca to take. **

**"****What is it?" Luca takes the basket and pulls off the white and red ****checked ****cloth that covers the contents. Three oversized, blood red apples, two apple and cinnamon muffins, and five pieces of shortbread. **

**"****The apples are from the tree in my front yard and the muffins and shortbread are something my grandmother whipped up." Scarlet smiles briefly. Luca looks a little taken back by the gift and cocks an eyebrow.**

**"****Why?" Luca stands up straight. "Not that I'm not grateful." Luca adds so that Scarlet doesn't mistake his tone for rude. **

**"****My grandmother told me that you stopped by to see how I was, and that you brought food with you." Scarlet plays with her long braid that hangs over her right shoulder. "And it's also a welcoming gift. I know that the rest of the village probably wasn't very hospitable." She rolls her eyes. She was right, Luca hadn't had the best welcoming. He was charged extra at the markets, was followed by almost everyone, and got into an agreement with the innkeeper when he tried to charge him double the rent. **

**"****Thank you." Luca says sincerely. "How are you feeling?" He asks as he walks back inside his room, placing Scarlet's basket on a small table in the middle of the room. Scarlet lingers in the doorway while Luca disappears into the dark room. **

**"****I'm feeling much better. I guess I just needed to stretch my legs." She jokes. Luca comes back into site, pulling on a black, cotton shirt as he walks. **

**"****I thought you said that the wolf hadn't attacked in years?" Luca sits at the table and pulls on black leather boots which, like Scarlet's, go up to his knees. **

**"****It hasn't. Last night was the first time anyone had heard the wolf, let only seen it, in a very long time." Scarlet's eyes glaze over as she unwillingly recalls the horrors from the other night.**

**"****You must have been pretty terrified." Luca stands up and walks back out the door. Scarlet looks into his autumn eyes, but even their beauty can't erase the glowing yellow orbs that continue to instil her with fear. She doesn't answer, as her throat begins to tighten. "Everyone's amazed at the fact that you're still alive." He shuts the door and takes another step out the door, making Scarlet step back into the wall behind her.**

**"****Yeah, so I've heard." She wheezes as her throat loosens slightly but quickly closes again. **

**"****I'm glad you're alright." Luca brushes a loose wisp of brown hair off Scarlet's face. The colour in Scarlet's face drains away slowly, her throat closes up completely as the mind shattering howl rings in her ears. "Are you alright?" Luca asks has he drops his hand to his side. Scarlet shakes her head as she slides against the wall to get past Luca, sprinting down the corridor and down the rickety old stairs. As she pushes the door open, a wave of cold air smashes her in the face and allows her to breathe again. She stumbles her way around to the side of the building, so that she's out of site from any prying eyes that happen to wander past. She collapses against the side of the building as she tries to get a steady breathing rhythm going. Luca looks for Scarlet out on the street. When he sees no sign of the red hood he begins to wander down the street until the echo of unsteady breaths lead him down the side of the inn. Amongst the shadows of the two buildings a splash of red stands out like blood on a wall. He walks down the tiny alleyway to where Scarlet is leaning against the wall, huffing and puffing like she'd been running for hours. "Scarlet?" He asks but there is no response. "Scarlet?" He asks again, stepping closer and lightly resting his hand on her shoulder. She flinches away immediately, her emerald eyes ablaze with fear and red rimmed with unshed tears. "Hey, hey. It's okay, it's okay." He grabs Scarlet by the shoulders gently and pulls her closer, so that she doesn't fall over in panic.**

**"****I…I…" Scarlet blurts out. **

**"****You're safe now, nothing's going to hurt you." Luca reassures her and tries to steady her breathing. "In and out, in and out." Luca mimics the motions and Scarlet follows him. "That's it." He whispers when her breathing sounds more relaxed. "What happened?" He asks, continuing to hold onto Scarlet. **

**"****I…I don't know. I just couldn't breathe." She stutters. "I just couldn't get it out my head." She closes her eyes and tries to push the unholy howl out of her head. **

**"****That's normal. It'll go away with time." He slides his hands up and down Scarlet's arms to soothe her. "It's my fault, I shouldn't have brought it up. I'm sorry." His voice warm and comforting. Scarlet nods, just wanting to be held. She just wants somebody to hold her, anybody, just to make her feel safe. Luca slowly slides his hands down to her waist, he tugs lightly and Scarlet flings herself into his arms. She wraps her arms around him, clenching two handfuls of his shirt and holds on for dear life. Luca warps one hand across the middle of her back while the other one twirls its way around Scarlet's coal and chestnut braid. Scarlet notices that Luca seems to be producing an unnatural amount of body heat but doesn't say anything as it is the only thing shielding her from the icy breeze that threatens to turn her into an icicle.  
>"Shh…" Luca tightens his grip on her. <strong>

**"****Sorry…" Scarlet mumbles into Luca's hard chest. She pulls away gently as her heat beat returns to normal and her breathing is no longer jagged. "Sorry." She says again when her common sense kicks in. She pushes herself out of Luca's arms, as the little voice in the back of her mind starts yelling. '****_You just meet him! You know nothing about him! You're getting married to another man, you can't be hugging other men just because you're upset!' _**

**"****It's all right." Luca scratches the back of his head. **

**"****I better get going." Scarlet pulls her hood around her to protect herself from the cold air. "Sorry again." She says and gestures that she needs Luca to move so that she can get out of the one way alleyway. He obliges and spins himself around and heads back out on to the street. **

**"****May I walk you home?" Luca asks when Scarlet exits the alleyway.**

**"****Oh you don't need to trouble yourself. I'll be fine." Scarlet reassures. Luca raises his eyebrows in doubt. **

**"****It's no trouble. Please?" Luca gestures in the direction of Scarlet's house. **

**"****Alright…" Scarlet turns. "If you insist." **


	7. Chapter 7

**_Chapter Seven_**

**_Changing your fate is a hard task.  
>But not knowing what direction to change it in<br>makes it harder. _**

**Luca and Scarlet walk side by side, occasionally bumping into one another. Scarlet agrees to make small chit-chat with him, to distract herself from the fact that she had just broke down like a quivering child and sobbed in his arms. ****_How embarrassing! I can't believe I did that!_**** Scarlet punishes herself in her head. **

**"****I'm really sorry, again." She says.**

**"****For the fifteenth time, it's fine. You can stop apologising, it really didn't bother me." Luca smiles.**

**"****Promise?" Scarlet asks, and by force of habit, she holds out her pinkie finger for him to shake. Scarlet blushes immediately, realising how stupid she must look, but before she can retract her hand Luca grabs her finger with his. When they withdraw from each other Scarlet finds any excuse not to look at Luca. Just how many time was she planning on embarrassing herself in front of him? "Sorry." Scarlet says again, this time apologising for the pinkie promise. **

**"****Stop apologising!" Luca knocks her with his elbow. **

**"****Okay, sor…" Scarlet bites her tongue as Luca glares at her. "So, how come you left Northpearl?" Scarlet changes the subject off her. **

**"****I guess I just felt like it was time to go." He says solemnly. "I needed a change." **

**"****I've never been anywhere." Scarlet breathes sadly. "What's the sea like?" She asks as she tries to contain her excitement. She's always wanted to travel, to leave her godforsaken town. **

**"****It was…" Luca pauses whilst recalling the roaring ocean that lapped the soft sanded shoreline, the cool breeze that would carry sea salt through the air, the dry, gritty sand that crunched beneath heavy boots, and the fractured rays of orange, yellow, pinks that lined the horizon as the sun descended through the darkening blue sky. "It was beautiful. One of the most beautiful places I've ever seen." Luca sighs. Scarlet's eyes dilate in wonder beneath the shade of her red hood. So many more questions run through her mind. **

**"****If it was so beautiful then why did you leave?" She inquires, knowing that if she ever got the chance to see the ocean, she would never leave. **

**"****There are many beautiful things in the world. Sometimes you just need to brave enough to let go of something beautiful, in order to find something even more extraordinary." Luca's sultry voice has Scarlet in a trance. ****_How can someone so young be so wise and articulate? _****She wonders silently to herself. **

**"****So what's the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?" Scarlet asks. Luca smiles while he considers her question. **

**"****The moon." He says longingly. **

**"****The moon?" Scarlet questions, breaking out of her trance. "How could you think the moon is beautiful? It controls beasts, how could something so evil ever be considered beautiful?" Scarlet snaps. **

**"****She's not evil. She's mysterious and wondrous. Her light illuminates the darkness. Her beauty may sway a man to beast, but that is not her doing, it isn't her fault that a curse befell a man." Luca exclaims, trying to get his point across. **

**"****She?" Scarlet questions in a spiteful tone. Luca doesn't answer, he just rolls his eyes. Scarlet notices his dismayed expression and pulls her lips into a thin line. "I'll consider your point." She says strongly, not wanting to argue with Luca, even though she doesn't completely agree with his views, she can't say that they are all wrong. "So… Was it your philosophy of beauty that made you decide to leave home and travel?" Scarlet continues their dying conversation. **

**"****No." Luca says gravely. He stiffens his shoulders and becomes agitated by the question, not wanting to answer it. Well, at least at this very moment. Scarlet senses the tension in his voice and bites back any follow through questions. They walk in silence for a little while longer, as Scarlet's cottage comes into view, a women and little boy stop and stare at the duo. **

**"****You've met my mother and brother, haven't you?" Scarlet asks gently. **

**"****No, I only met your grandmother" Luca replies. Scarlet gulps and nervously laughs.**

**"****Well then, you're in for a treat." She waves at the two in front of them. Jackson waves at his sister, but eyes off the stranger standing next to her. Luca glances from Scarlet to her family. "Morning." She calls out to them when they're only a few feet away. **

**"****Morning." Her mother replies. "How come you're out of bed?" She questions, while looking Luca up and down. **

**"****I'm feeling much better and grandmother thought that it was best if I got some fresh air." She smiles and ruffles her brother's hair chestnut hair. She pulls him in for an involuntary hug, but he caves eventually and wraps his arms around her. "Um…this is Luca." She lets go of her brother so can introduce himself to Luca. Jackson cranks his head all the way back to look at the giant stranger. He clings to Scarlet's hood for protection, slightly afraid of the intimidating character. But he would rather die than admit that he's sacred.**

**"****A pleasure to meet you." Luca charmingly takes Scarlet's mother's hand and kisses it gently. Scarlet rolls her eyes. **

**"****Oh." Her mother gasps in flattery. "I've heard so much about you." She says. Scarlet cocks and eyebrow in curiosity, but Luca just smirks. **

**"****All good things I hope." He doesn't wait for Scarlet's mother to respond, before he drops to the ground, supporting himself on his haunches. "Hello." He says to Jackson, extending his arm in a friendly manner. Jackson flinches slightly and pulls Scarlet's hood closer to him. Luca laughs warmly. "I don't bite." He assures little Jackson. Jackson slowly reaches for Luca's hand. When he grasps it Luca does most of the shaking. Luca straightens his legs back up and leans over to Scarlet. "Much." He whispers playfully into her ear when her mother is looking away, responding to another villager who called out her name. Scarlet can feel her cheeks turn as red as her hood. She shoves him lightly with her elbow. Luca laughs, which brings Scarlet's mother's attention back on him. "Well, it was lovely meeting you both." Luca bows his head. "But I must be going. Enjoy the rest of your day." He smiles cheeky at Scarlet. **

**"****Glad we could finally meet." Her mother says, taking her son by the hand. **

**"****See you around." Luca directs his comment to Scarlet before turning on his heel and head in the other direction. **

**"****I hope so." Scarlet whispers to herself as Jackson takes her hand and tugs on it, wanting her to follow them home. **

**"****Come on Red." Jackson whines. **

**"****Alright, alright. I'm coming." She swivels and follows her mother and brother inside their fortified house, which used to be impenetrable. **


	8. Chapter 8

**_Chapter Eight_**

**_It is madness for sheep to talk peace  
>with a wolf.<em>**

**"****Let us hunt it!" **

**"****Let's kill it!" **

**"****Yeah!" The small tavern overflows with angry, drunken men. In a sea of rage, a man jumps onto a table to rise above the waves of fury. Grey. **

**Grey bellows at the roaring crowd. "For three generations we've cowered in fear! Hiding ourselves away, fearing for our lives, sacrificing our best livestock!" Grey turns slowly on the wooden table, on which he stands, so that he includes everyone in the tavern. "For three generations we've kept the peace, and how does that blood thirsty beast repay us?" He pauses. "By slaughtering half our livestock in one night, and ripping through one of our homes, almost killing two of our own!" Everyone murmurs angrily in agreement. "Well I say enough!" Grey exclaims, the whole tavern hollering in agreement. "We will live in fear no more!" Grey screams and everyone roars, raising their glasses and weapons in the air. "There will be no more wolfstime!"**

**"****Yeah!" Everyone shouts back. Grey raises his large, double-sided axe above his head and chants with his fellow brethren. Everyone begins slamming the hilts of their weapons onto the tables and chairs, making the whole room tremble. From the outside, the tavern sounds like an aggravated bees nest. **

**In Scarlet's house, the tension begins to build again, slowly. Scarlet and her mother barely speak, but their anger starts to take up to much energy. "May I be excused?" Scarlet asks as she stands from the dinner table, taking up her and her brother's plates. Scarlet's grandmother smiles sweetly at her as she places the plates next to the sink. **

**"****Jackson, you may be excused. Scarlet sit back down." Her mother says whilst shooing her son away from the table. Scarlet bites her tongue when she feels a rebuttal rising in her throat. She sits down quietly and unclenches her jaw. **

**"****Yes, mother?" She asks, trying not to sound spiteful. **

**"****We need to talk about your attitude towards your engagement." Her mother pushes her plate away and faces Scarlet, who lets out a giant sigh and slouches in her chair. **

**"****That's exactly what I mean." Her mother exclaims. **

**"****What did I do?" Scarlet questions. "I sat down." **

**"****It's the way you sat down. It's the way you're doing everything around here. Sighing, huffing and puffing, moping around, yelling for no reason, hiding yourself away in your room." Her mother rubs the sides of her temples. "I don't understand why you're so against it." She looks back up at her daughter. **

**"****My problem is not with the engagement!" Scarlet spits, her fury overflowing. "My problem is with Grey!" Scarlet pushes her chair away from the table and stands abruptly. "I don't want to marry HIM!" Scarlet yells.**

**"****Don't raise your voice at me, young lady!" Her mother stands as well. "Grey is the most eligible man in the village. Any other girl would be honoured to have him for a husband." Scarlet's mother bellows. **

**"****If you think so highly of him, then why don't you marry him?" Scarlet shouts and sprints up the stairs, slamming her door behind her. Silence hangs in the air as Scarlet's mother and grandmother are the only ones left in the room. **

**"****Well, that went well." Scarlet's grandmother stares at her daughter. **

**"****What have I done wrong?" She exclaims at her mother. "I tried talking to her. I just don't see why she's being so hostile about the whole situation?" Scarlet's mother collects the rest of things on the table and takes them to the kitchen.**

**"****Well, as she stated, she's not upset with the****_ Whole _****situation, just one thing in particular." Her mother follows her in to the kitchen. **

**"****Yes, yes, yes. But why? I bet she can't even come up with one reason why. She's just being stubborn." **

**"****Does she really need to give you a reason?" Scarlet's grandmother eyes off her daughter. **

**"****What are you talking about?" She scowls back at her mother. **

**"****I remember your father wanting to marry you to the Miller boy. If I had allowed it, would you of gone along with it?" She cocks an eyebrow and crosses her arms across her chest. **

**"****Joshua?" Her anger soon drowns in disgust. "That didn't happen, so it doesn't matter." She turns her back to her mother, tying her strawberry blonde mess into a tangled bun, on top of her head. **

**"****It matters!" Her mother takes her by the shoulders and spins her back around. "Would you have gone through with it?" She questions fiercely. **

**"****There is a very big difference between Joshua and Grey!"**

**"****Yes or no?" Her mother shouts.**

**"****No!" Scarlet's mother pushes herself out of her mother's reach. "Joshua is nothing like Grey, so why does it matter?" **

**"****Give me a reason why you wouldn't marry Joshua?" **

**"****I…I…" Scarlet's mother plays with her words in her head. "He…he made my skin crawl, he made me want to pull my hair out." She throws her hands up in the hair. "He is nothing like Grey." **

**"****How do you know!?" Her mother screams at her. "How do you know, huh? How do you know Grey doesn't make Scarlet feel the exact same way Joshua made you feel?" Scarlet's grandmother queries in frustration. **

**"****I…" Her daughter struggles with her words and drops her head in defeat. **

**"****If you continue to push her, then you're going to lose her." Her mother retires to her room, leaving her daughter to dwell in her troubled thoughts. **


	9. Chapter 9

**_Chapter Nine_**

**_Love makes you question the things you  
>thought were important.<em>**

**Rays of pink and orange streak the aqua sky, as the sun peeks its head over the horizon. The forest seems eerily silent then it normally would, Scarlet observes, as she lingers in the shadows of the town wall, hiding herself from Grey's hunting party as they prepare to leave for their morning hunt. **

**"****Grey, let's go. She's probably already a mile away." A man taps Grey on the shoulder as the rest of the pack nods their heads in agreement. **

**"****Fine…" Grey leans his axe on his shoulder, taking one last look around the village entrance, to make sure Scarlet is nowhere in sight. The pack set out on a slow jog, with Grey as the leader. Scarlet smirks and steps out of the shadows. She slowly makes her way to the village gates. She stares into the abyss of sun streaked greens, while she places her hood over her head and pulls up her matching crimson mask, which covers everything up to her eyes. Her body jolts itself forward as she sets off at a run, sprinting into the woods, in the opposite direction to Grey and his hunting pack. **

**As a streak of red disturbs the stillness of the forest, Luca smiles mischievously. After patiently waiting for any hour, he leaps out of the tree he had been perched in and follows the dash of red that is quickly immersing itself in the forest. He rubs his hands together in delight and leaps into a run, sprinting at an unnaturally fast pace as he stalks his prey.  
>Within seconds Luca trails quietly behind Scarlet, He sticks to the overhanging ridge that looks down on Scarlet. Avoiding protruding roots and grasping branches, Luca keeps his unnatural pace whilst trying not to overtake Scarlet. After she thinks she's submerged enough, she gradually stops running and then stops all together, to catch her breath. Luca hides in the shadows of the trees as Scarlet draws her bow from her back and loads an arrow, surveying her surroundings. She treads carefully downhill, listening for anything that could be unsuspecting prey. Her ears twitch as something rustles through the hedge of bushes to her left. Scarlet pulls the string to her cheek and steadies her breathing. The next few seconds happen fast, as a noise behind Scarlet scares the creature from out from under the shrubs. A boar bolts from the shrubs and follows the unmarked path that winds round the stone wall of the ridge.<br>"No. Not again." Scarlet fires after the boar, misses, and reloads. She chases after it, jumping over and dogging gnarled branches that grab at her cloak, making an attempt to slow her down. She sends five more arrows whistling through the air, the fifth one barely pierces the boars hide, the shaft shatters on collision with a tree as the boar shrikes and stumbles to the ground. But before Scarlet can even draw another arrow, the boar lifts itself off the ground and takes off at the same speed that it was sprinting at before.  
>Luca leaps from ridge to ridge, watching Scarlet hunt the boar in the chasm below. He races ahead of the boar, knowing that the chasm will soon end with a moss covered stone wall. Luca leaps down into the chasm once he is well ahead them; landing gracefully at a running start. Luca jumps over his traps that still remain untouched, buried beneath fallen foliage. He hides in the shadows of the stone walls and waits for his prey to wander helplessly into his grasp.<br>The boar stumbles around sharp turns, with Scarlet closing in, firing aimless arrows as she goes. The boar flies around the last bend, its legs stumbling over each other until its body becomes too much to bear. The boar stumbles and rolls down into a ditch-like area. Scarlet glances her eyes up the might of the wall that prevents the boar's escape. She smiles at her chances of victory, but her grin soon fades. As the boar tumbles further down into the ditch the leaves that cover the ground move. Like a hurricane exploding from the ground, the boar is engulfed by a giant net of red and green leaves; that were lying silently on the ground. Scarlet gasps at the sight and tries to slow herself down, but she's going too fast to stop in time. With another loud snapping noise, something coils around Scarlet's legs and grows tighter and tighter. Before she can even blink Scarlet can feel the gravity that holds her to ground, let go and disperse away from her. In a blur of brown, red and green, Scarlet is flung into the air, her breath is knocked out of her, preventing her from shrieking in terror. Her bow lays on the ground beneath her, along with the rest of her unfired arrows, which fell from her quiver. The world around her spins like a top. The sky becomes the ground and earth becomes the atmosphere. Tears well in her eyes from the fear surging through her and flakes of dirt that fill her eyes. She thrashes violently around and tries to claw at the rope which ties around her ankles, but the whole all deal becomes too much and Scarlet falls back down, hanging straight in the air with her arms dangling above her head, pointing towards the ground. Amounts the squealing of the trapped boar and disturbed foliage falling back towards the ground; Scarlet can hear the faint chuckle of a man laughing, getting closer and closer. She tries to spin herself around to see where the laugh is originating from but the spinning just makes her want to throw up.**

**"****Well, well, well. It must be my lucky day." The man laughs from below Scarlet. **

**"****Luca!" Her rage replacing her fear. "Get me down!" **


	10. Chapter 10

**_Chapter Ten_**

**_Occasionally, it's okay to build a relationship  
>on secrets.<em>**

**"****What's the magic word?" Luca teases from the ground. **

**"****Luca…" Scarlet whines whilst trying to keep the contents of her stomach down. "I'm going to kill you, if you don't get me down. Now!" She screams and begins to thrash around again.**

**"****Well…I don't know… I'm kind of liking you up there." Luca jokes and leans against a tree, crossing his muscular arms across his hard chest. **

**"****Luca!" Scarlet screams, letting go of the rope that holds her off the ground. "Get me down!" **

**"****What's in it for me?" Luca asks. **

**"****Argg…" Scarlet growls. "Why you…unbelievable, ungrateful, childish…I'm going to kill you!" Scarlet claws at the ropes again. "First, you scare away my deer, and now you ruin my shot at killing a boar!" **

**"****Now, now. Your boar? I do believe it ran into****_ MY_**** trap." Luca torments, leaving his tree and strolling around the ditch-like area. **

**"****No, no, no! It's mine! I chased it here! You know that!" Scarlet loses her temper. A slither of shock runs through Luca at the sound of Scarlet's fierce voice. "Let me down…" Scarlet tries not to whimper through clenched teeth. Luca senses the distress he walks back over to the tree where he was leaning. "Please…" Scarlet whimpers quietly as she grips her stomach with both hands.**

**"****Alright, alright. Since you put it like that." Luca pulls a knife from his pocket and slices the rope, which he had dyed brown to blend in with the tree. Scarlet shrieks in terror as she starts to plunge back to the ground without warning. Luca glides back under Scarlet in two, unnaturally fast steps, catching her before she hits the ground. "Good morning." He says playfully when Scarlet's screaming ceases.**

**"****What's good about it?" Scarlet says in a huff, deciding whether to punch Luca or thank him. "Put me down." Scarlet demands calmly, staring at the ground, which is still a long way down. **

**"****Of course." Luca pretends to drop Scarlet. A slight scream escapes her lips as she wraps her arms around Luca's neck. Luca smirks and chuckles loudly. He walks them under the shade of the forest's canopy and places Scarlet gently on her feet, but keeps a lose hold on her arm in case she needs to be steadied. **

**"****You're not funny." Scarlet breathes angrily, leaning against a tree and pulling herself out of his grip. "Did Grey put you up to this?" She questions harshly and narrows her eyes in suspicion, her rage boiling fast. **

**"****Grey?" Luca cocks his head. "You mean the man who I met with you?" Scarlet pulls her lips into a thin line as she tries to contain her anger. "I've never spoken to him, why would he want me to trap you?" Luca crosses his arms. "Not that that was my intention, I didn't know you were going to coming running around the corner." Luca shows sincerity in his handsome expression, while the mischief hides beneath. **

**"****Promise?" Scarlet tries to release her built up anger by breathing out harshly. **

**"****Promise." Luca smiles warmly. "Are you alright?" He waits for Scarlet's answer. **

**"****I'm…" Scarlet closes her eyes and squeezes them tightly. "I…" She mumbles, opening her eyes which spill a few tears, ridding her eyes of dirt.**

**"****I'm sorry for frightening you." Luca steps closer to her and rest his hands lightly on her waist.**

**"****I…that's okay. I'm fine." She lets go of all her unnecessary anger and dismisses the incident as an unintentional accident. She now focuses on Luca's hands and how close he is to her. Luca lifts a hand and gently wipes away the dirt streaked tears. **

**"****Well then…" Luca's eyes dance over Scarlet's body. "As long as you're okay." He winks and let's go of Scarlet, strolling back over to the hanging boar, which is still squealing. **

**"****Hey wait." Scarlet forces her legs to follow Luca. "That's mine." She gestures to boar. **

**"****If you want to get technical, I say it was a joint effort." Luca pulls out his knife again and jabs it into the net. The boar shrieks louder in agony and then silence falls over the area. "I'm happy to share." Luca smiles as he retracts his knife and wipes the crimson liquid off his blade with a rag that hangs from one of his belt loops. Scarlet huffs in frustration and collects her bow and arrows from the ground. **

**"****So is this what you do? Con game off people?" She counts her remaining arrows and re-sheathes them. Luca laughs and cuts the net down.**

**"****No. I got a job as a woodsman. I hunt to earn a little more money." He laughs as he ties the net up like a bag, so the boar is easier to carry. **

**"****Really? A woodsman?" She inquires, surprised that he had gotten a job so quickly.**

**"****Really. I'm surprised that you actually don't have that many in village. I thought you'd have more." Luca says.**

**"****Yeah well, we're more of a hunting town." Scarlet folds her arms across her chest. **

**"****I can see that." Luca smirks. "So, you up for sharing?" He slings the boar over his shoulder and pretends to struggle with weight a little bit. Scarlet widens her eyes in surprise. **

**"****Oh, isn't that heavy?" She asks and tries to offer her assistance, even though she knows she probably wouldn't be much help. **

**"****A little but I can manage." Luca says confidently. **

**"****Alright, if you say so…" Scarlet watches as Luca passes her slowly. **

**"****You coming?" Luca calls over his shoulder as he treks back the way Scarlet had come. **

**"****Yes." Scarlet admits and catches up to Luca. **

**"****So…" Luca starts has they continue to trek through the winding chasm. "Why did you think Grey asked me to trap you?" Luca asks. Scarlet furrows her brow in annoyance and sighs. **

**"****Not trap me, per say, just scare me." She says and overtakes Luca.**

**"****Why would he want to scare you?" As Luca's curiosity grows for Scarlet, so does his protectiveness for her.**

**"****Um…" Scarlet plays with her words in her head, still unsure if she should trust Luca with her secrets. She's never had anyone to talk to before, and to be honest, that's all she's ever wanted. Someone that's not her mother or grandmother, her brother is too young and as far as friends go…well, Scarlet has never been great at making friends. "He doesn't like me hunting in the woods alone. He'd prefer me to hunt with his party." She says spitefully. "Then again he'd also like me to stay home and never leave the village again." Scarlet says harshly under her breath but Luca hears her perfectly. **

**"****So? Who is he to tell you what to do?" Luca asks, a little confused. **

**"****He's my…fiancé…" Scarlet sounds like she'd rather swallow glass then be engaged to Grey. Luca takes the information in slowly, growing slightly annoyed. **

**"****You don't sound too thrilled about that." Luca observes.**

**"****Well, he wasn't my choice. According to everyone I have no say in the matter." She huffs angrily.**

**"****Have told your mother how you feel? Surely she wouldn't force you into anything you don't want to do?" Luca chimes, hoping to be of some help.**

**"****Ha!" Scarlet scoffs. "I tell my mother every damn day!" She throws her hands up in the air. "She just fights back and says, 'Grey is the most eligible man in town; any girl would be thrilled to have him.'" Scarlet mimics her mother. Luca widens his eyes in understanding.**

**"****So what are you going to do about it?" Luca adjusts the boar on his shoulder. **

**"****What do you mean?" **

**"****Are going to marry him?" **

**"****It's not like I have a choice…"**

**"****So you're just going to give up?"**

**"****What am I supposed to do, huh?" Scarlet exclaims "I've tried talking my mother round, I've tried being hostile, I've tried explaining that ****_I really_**** don't want to marry him, but no one gives a damn as to what I have to say. So, please if you have any ideas, that would be great." She grumbles. **

**"****You could always runaway." Luca shrugs.**

**"****Ha, that the best you got? Where would I go? What about my brother and grandmother? I can't just leave them." She sighs, imagining living by herself, somewhere in the woods – where she could hunt all day and not have to worry about beasts or marriage.**

**"****Have you ever considered it?" **

**"****I…well." Scarlet struggles. "I've thought about it, I suppose. But I just…can't leave my family, among other things." She sighs and stares into the sun splotched canopy. "We can't all runaway and travel the world like you." **

**"****I didn't run away." Luca snaps. He swallows a bubble of rage that is rising in his throat. **

**"****Well I just assumed…"**

**"****Well you assumed wrong." Luca interrupts. Scarlet looks a little baffled at his secretiveness, after all, did she not deserve some answers after she had just told him things she hadn't even breathed to anyone else?**

**"****No need to get so defensive. I told you something about me…" She starts. Luca glares fiercely at her, his autumn eyes leave a trail of goose bumps along Scarlet's skin. "It is fair. I tell you something about me, you tell me something about you." She smiles slightly, trying to relieve the tension growing between them. Luca rolls his eyes and focuses back on the trail in front of them. **

**"****Fine…" Luca growls. "What do you want to know?" **


	11. Chapter 11

**_Chapter Eleven _**

**_Fear is only in our minds  
>but it's taking over<br>all the time._**

**Scarlet smiles beneath her hood. She decides to start slow and simple, hoping that she'll get Luca to be less hostile with easy questions. And in return she'd answer the same questions.  
>"Um…What's your favourite colour?" She requests. Luca furrows his brow and raises an eyebrow, as if to say 'are you serious?' Luca sighs and plays along.<strong>

**"****Black." He breathes. "And let me guess, yours is… Red?" He says smartly. Scarlet smiles and nods her head. **

**"****Yes. What's your favourite time of year?" She Inquires. **

**"****Autumn." He responds. **

**"****Why?" **

**"****Because it's the most beautiful season." Luca says solemnly. Scarlet just nods her head. "Yours?" **

**"****Um…summer. The forest is more…thicker and greener at that time." She breathes in the comforting smell of pine needles and the damp earth. **

**"****Um…Favourite animal?" **

**"****Wolf."**

**"****Raven." Scarlet continues. "Favourite food?"**

**"****Well your grandmother's muffins are pretty high up there." He smiles.**

**"****Ha, agreed. She be happy you liked them." Scarlet laughs sincerely. "Hobbies?" **

**"****Hunting." Luca answers quickly, making it difficult for Scarlet to come up with simple questions. "Yours?" He asks. **

**"****Um…drawing." Scarlet responds. "Um…one word to describe yourself?"**

**"****Handsome." Luca smiles mischievously, revealing his sharp teeth. Scarlet blushes and tries not nod her head in agreement, even though she completely agrees with him. **

**"****Ah…stubborn." Scarlet declares honestly. **

**"****Hmm…I can see that." Luca agrees. Scarlet laughs uneasily, becoming slightly embarrassed. **

**"****Siblings?" **

**"****No." **

**"****Where were you born?" **

**"****Violethollow." He says reluctantly. Scarlet tries to think of all the places she's heard of but Violethollow doesn't come to mind. **

**"****Why did you leave?" Scarlet stops treading lightly and jumps into the deep end.**

**"****Where not there yet." Luca looks at Scarlet through the corner of his eye. "Where's your father?" Luca asks out of the blue. Scarlets throat closes when she tries to answer, her memories still too painful to talk about. **

**"****Where not there yet." She retorts quietly.**

**"****Fair enough." Luca swallows. They walk in silence for a little longer, until the village gate can be seen through the thickness of the forest. As Luca heads for the front gates Scarlet grabs his free arm and tugs slightly.**

**"****Wait, not that way. Follow me." She strolls along the village wall, hidden beneath the coverage of the woods. Luca follows slowly. **

**"****Why?" He calls after her. **

**"****Well we don't want to whole village hacking away at the boar as we walk through the town, do we?" She says 'matter of factly.' Luca shrugs in agreement and is surprised that he didn't think of that. **

**"****So what do you suggest we do then?"**

**"****Just follow me." She continues to lead Luca down the wall. She stops when the wall starts to curve back round again and looks up at the top of the wall, where guards should be standing, but they're not. The noise of growing murmurs and people completing their everyday chores float of the fortified wall and flood the surrounding forest. Scarlet turns her attention to a line of trees that stand tall only a few metres away from the wall, the thick branches stretching out so that they're within touching distance of the wall. Scarlet finally choses one and leaps into a climb. "Wait here." She calls down to Luca as she continues to snake her way up the tree. **

**"****What are you doing?" Luca asks as he puts the boar down next to him and stretches out his shoulders. **

**"****You'll see." Scarlet huffs as climbs higher. Once she's aligned herself with top of the wall she steadies herself and starts to walk one of the branches like a type rope. Luca stares at her in disbelief and anxiety. He leaves the boar to fall on its side as he runs to where Scarlet walks forty feet above him. **

**"****Are you crazy? You realise it's a forty feet drop?" Luca steadies himself in case he needs to jump in to action, whilst he watches Scarlet's every move. **

**"****Oh relax. I've done this plenty of times." When she's about a foot from the wall, she bends he knees and prepares to jump. Scarlet leaps from the tree branch and flies of the village wall. Luca lets a little moan of dread escape his lips. **

**"****Scarlet?" He calls to make sure she's okay. "Scarlet?" He repeats when she doesn't answer. Still no response. "God damn it." Luca curses and throws the boar with one hand against the wall and marches over to the same tree which Scarlet had climbed. Luca looks up at the wall one more time before finding his footing. As he looks up something swings over the wall. A long rope trails down the wall with a large hook connected to it. Luca lets go of the tree and steps out of the tree line. Scarlet pops her head over the barrier and giggles. **

**"****Worried?" She yells. **

**"****Phft…" Luca mumbles. "Fool." He walks over to the rope which dangles above the boar. "I thought you fell." He grumbles.**

**"****Well I didn't, you should have more faith in me. Now hurry up, we don't have all day. Attach it to the rope and start climbing." Luca rolls his eyes and does as she says. He gives her a thumbs up and she starts pulling. Luca watches the rise off the ground before retreating back to the tree line, where he jumps into a tree and begins to climb. He climbs faster than what Scarlet did, climbing the tree in a matter of seconds. He follows in Scarlet's steps and leaps from the tree and on to the top of the wall. **

**"****Wow, you'd think you'd be able to pull it up, since I carried it all the way." Luca teases.**

**"****Oh shut up and help me." Scarlet breathes, struggling to pull up the heavy load.**

**"****Magic word?" He whispers into her ear as he stands behind her and grabs the rope. Luca does most of the work but Scarlet just stays where she is, mainly because Luca has is arms around her, preventing her from moving. Not that she is complaining. "What would you do without me?" Luca moans as he pulls the boar to the top. It topples over the edge and lands at their feet. **

**"****Oh I don't know, probably the same thing, just would have taken me a little longer." Scarlet flicks her hair over her shoulder and pulls her hood of her head. **

**"****Is that so?" Luca lifts the boar back onto his shoulder. **

**"****It is." Scarlet narrowly strolls past and down the stairs with Luca in tow. Scarlet's house is only just across from the bottom of the stair case. Her little brother plays in the front yard with her mother watching him from the front steps. "Come on." Scarlet glances back at Luca. She pouts her lips together and lets out a high pitched whistle. Her brother turns his head immediately and smiles.**

**"****Red!" He runs to his sister jumping into her arms. **

**"****Argg…oh you're getting heavy little man." She laughs as she puts her brother back on the ground. **

**"****Wow…" Jackson stares past Scarlet and at Luca, who as a boar slung over his shoulder. Luca smiles warmly at the boy. **

**"****Hello." Luca smirks.**

**"****You remember my friend Luca?" Scarlet asks and Jackson nods in response. "Wanna' see what we caught?" Scarlet asks and tousles her brother's hair. He nods eagerly, looking like he hasn't eaten for days. "Right-i-o then, let's get it inside." She pats her brother on the shoulder and he turns and runs to his mother. She smiles briefly at Luca and starts to walk towards her house. **

**"****Friend?" Luca whispers as they approach the front steps. **

**"****Do you want to go back to acquaintance?" She raises an eyebrow. **

**"****No, I like friend." He smiles and greets Scarlet's mother. **

**"****Well, you two have been busy…" She muses. "Quick, quick, inside before anyone notices." She hesitantly opens the door for Luca who follows Scarlet in. "You can put it in the kitchen." She calls to Luca as she marches up the stairs. **

**"****This way." Scarlet inclines her head to her left as she removes her bow and quiver, resting them next to the doorframe. Luca drops the boar down on the island bench and rolls his shoulder, as he takes in the interior of the house. "Do you want to stay for dinner?" Scarlet stares at the bench and fiddles with her hair as she asks.**

**"****Love to." **


	12. Chapter 12

**_Chapter Twelve _**

**_A wolf isn't always the beast  
>that needs to be feared. <em>**

**"****Hello…" Scarlet knocks as she opens the door to her grandmother's room, where her mother had fled to. "Everyone up?" **

**"****Yes darling." Her grandmother replies. Her mother and grandmother sit at the foot of the bed while Jackson sits on the ground in front of them, playing with an old toy. "Your mother tells me that you had a very successful hunt." Her grandmother smiles sweetly. **

**"****Yes…" She walks in. "I was wondering if Luca could stay for dinner?" She asks innocently. "Since he helped me catch it." Scarlet adds in so they know that Luca is entitled to a piece of it. Her mother and grandmother exchange glances, her grandmother's features hold approval while her mother's hold displeasure.**

**"****I thought you hated hunting with a partner." He mother hisses. **

**"****I do! I didn't ask him to hunt with me. It was an accident." Scarlet bites back.**

**"****The both of you calm down." He grandmother stands in between the two. "Just for one day, is it too much to ask for you two to get along?" She glares at the both of them. "Scarlet, Luca can stay. Go make use of him while your mother and I prepare dinner." She decides by herself. Scarlet nods her head smiles to thank her. She canters back down the stairs with Jackson in tow, leaving her grandmother and mother to argue about the decision that was just made. Luca stands awkwardly in the sitting room, with his arms at his side, shuffling from one foot to the other.**

**"****Come on." Scarlet says as she beckons Luca to follow her. "You can make use of yourself." They walk out the front door together and make their way around the back of the house, avoiding the ripe apple tree which stretches its fruitful arms towards the right side of the house. "Well Mr Woodcutter, show me what you can do." Scarlet picks up her father's old woodcutting axe which was leaning against a stack of un-chopped wood. She pass the axe to Luca, who chuckles to himself as he takes it. Scarlet rolls a heavy log over to the cutting block where she huffs and straitens her back and smiles for Luca to do the rest.**

**"****Ha…I've got to do everything, do I?" Luca drops the axe while he lifts the log onto the cutting block. **

**"****Not everything…I rolled it." Scarlet says 'matter of factly'. **

**"****Oh, well then, that was such a big job. Would you like to sit down? Rest your poor little self, wouldn't want you collapsing of exhaustion." Luca snickers.**

**"****Smart ass." Scarlet mumbles under her breath and sits on the stack of logs, smiling smugly and crossing her arms over her chest.**

**"****How do you want it cut?" Luca asks, picking up the axe. **

**"****In to four." Scarlet says. Luca lifts the axe over his shoulder and brings it down hard on the log. The axe slices through the log like a knife through butter and wedges itself into the block. Luca moves half of the log away and repositions the other while pulling out the axe with one hand. Scarlet marvels at his strength while she props her elbows on her knees and cups her face with her hands. She studies his muscles that ripple through his thin shirt, as he swings again and again. **

**"****Roll me over another." Luca says as he starts a pile of cut wood. Luca turns back round to find Scarlet staring at him with a dumb expression pasted across her face. He laughs. "You who…anyone home?" He leans the axe of his shoulder. **

**"****What?" Scarlet snaps out of trance and blushes in extreme embarrassment. **

**"****Roll me another log." Luca repeats while laughing. Scarlet jumps off the stack and rolls another log over to him without question. "Enjoying the view, were you?" Luca asks mischievously as he takes the log from Scarlet and places it on the block.**

**"****What…um…phft. No…I was just...ah…" Scarlet trails off and tucks wisps of hair behind her ears. "I was just unamused with your poor cutting skills…and was falling asleep." Scarlet cocks her head to the side and crosses her arms across her chest.**

**"****Hahahah…." Luca burst out, bending over and resting his hands on his knees to support himself while he continues to laugh. "Is that the best you got?" He laughs. **

**"****Oh you think you're so good, don't you?" She scoffs.**

**"****Well…" Luca smiles. Scarlet pushes him and he begins to fall. But before he does he grabs Scarlet's arm for support but she proves to be no help and falls first, with Luca landing on top of her. They land with a thud and plumes of dirt spiral in air around them. Scarlet coughs slightly and opens her eyes slowly. Luca laughs while supporting himself on his elbows, so Scarlet's petite body isn't crushed beneath 150 kilos of muscle. "Good job." Luca assures. **

**"****Shut up." Scarlet mumbles. She stares for a moment into his memorising eyes that gleam like autumn as she lets her mind wander through possibilities of another life. Luca wipes the smile off his face and leans his face closer to Scarlet's. "Luca…" She breaths quietly.**

**"****Yes…" He mumbles back and leans closer. Their lips begin to graze when a small voice interrupts them.**

**"****Red?" A voice echo's from behind them. Luca disappointedly lifts his head while Scarlet smiles awkwardly. **

**"****I'm okay Jackson." She calls to her brother who clings to the wall of the house. "I was just…helping Luca cut the wood." She adds.**

**"****On the ground?" Jackson asks. Luca smiles and laughs slightly, pushing himself off the ground and then helping Scarlet up. **

**"****Well, we had a little accident." She brushes herself off. "Want to help?" She asks and her brother nods. "Come on then." She waves her brother over while Luca starts cutting the second log. "Now if you stand here." She positions her brother near Luca, but out of swinging range. "When Luca finishes cutting a piece can you put it in the pile that his already started?" She points the pile of four pieces that lay behind them. Jackson nods reluctantly and stares at Luca, with his bludging muscles as he cuts through wood with ease. Jackson starts doing his small task as Luca smiles and passes him the first two pieces. Scarlet starts to roll more logs over and forms a line. They continue like this for an hour or so and Luca hasn't even broken a sweat. Scarlet stops for a moment to wipe her brow while Jackson mimics her. She laughs and Jackson begins to giggle. Luca looks up through tangled raven hair and glance from one to the other.**

**"****What?" Luca asks, confused. **

**"****Nothing." Scarlet smiles. "Want a break?" She asks.**

**"****We're almost finished." He says and straightens his back. "Why? Do you need one?" Luca smiles. **

**"****Nope. Hurry up." Scarlet says, trying to be tough. They continue their little rhythm for another fifteen minutes and finally, to Scarlet's relief, they reach the last one. "Yay…" Scarlet drones and rolls the last log over to Luca. **

**"****Last one, you want to have a go?" Luca swings the handle towards Scarlet.**

**"****Oh…" Scarlet mumbles, surprised. "I think you can manage it." She says and puts her hands up in defence and a sign to say that she isn't interested. **

**"****Really? I thought I was a poor woodsman?" He raises his eyebrow in judgement.**

**"****Yeah well…you got a tiny bit better in the last hour." Scarlet smirks. **

**"****Oh, just a tiny bit?" Luca questions and takes a step towards Scarlet. **

**"****Yes. Just a tiny bit." Scarlet demonstrates how tiny with her finger. **

**"****Well then, you'll have to show me how it's done…" Luca grabs Scarlet before she can even blink and positions her in front of the chopping block. He stands behind her and wraps his arms around her, with the axe in hand. Scarlet rolls her eyes and takes the axe, placing her hands below and above Luca's. Luca lets go momentarily and bucks Scarlet's hips towards him and parts her legs shoulder width apart. "Bend your knees." Luca breathes into her ear. **

**"****I thought I was the one giving you the lesson." She taunts. **

**"****Well you're not showing a great deal of improvement compared to me, dearie." **

**"****Oh please, I've been cutting wood for years." **

**"****Actions speak louder than words darling." Luca teases. Scarlet huffs and lifts the axe without another word and brings it down on the log, splitting it down the middle. **

**"****Happy?" She asks cockily as Luca releases her from his grip. **

**"****I don't know… I was pretty unamused. Thought you could do better." He jokes and Scarlet punches him in the shoulder. **

**"****Can I have a go?" Jackson asks innocently. **

**"****Um…" Scarlet starts doubtfully.**

**"****Sure kiddo." Luca finishes Scarlet's sentence and Scarlet shots him a nervous look. "What?" Luca shrugs his shoulders at Scarlet. "He'll be fine." He gestures for Jackson to take the axe. He takes it with enthusiasm but it proves to be a little heavy for him. "Slow down kiddo." Luca sets up the next piece of wood and stands behind Jackson, taking the same stance has he had for Scarlet, placing his hands above and below Jackson's. "Okay, now. Slide your hands further apart and move your feet apart." Luca instructs and Jackson follows. "Okay now we're going to lift it and then drop it down, okay?"**

**"****Yep." Jackson replies cheerfully.**

**"****Okay. One, two…three." They lift the axe in sync, Luca doing most of the lifting, and they drop it down on the wood, splintering it half down. "Not bad, little buddy. Okay, ready, we lift again." They lift the axe again, with axe head still buried in the log. They bring it down and it smashes on the on block, breaking it in to two. **

**"****Yay." Jackson smiles at Scarlet, who smiles proudly back. **

**"****Good job little buddy." Luca high fives Jackson, who beams happily at him. Luca finishes the last bit by himself and throws it into the high stack of cut wood. "Where do you want it all?" Luca asks Scarlet as he throws the axe down on the block, leaving it leaning on an angle, wedged into the block. **

**"****Um half of it can go back against the house and the other can come inside." Scarlet says and pats her brother on the head. They start moving the wood back to its original place against the back wall of the house. Once that's finished Luca starts piling wood up in Jackson's out stretched arms. When the stack reaches the bottom of his chin, Luca does the same to Scarlet. **

**"****Too heavy?" He asks. Scarlet shakes her head and piles a bit more on top and then carries the rest himself. The march back round the front of the house and onto the porch. Jackson goes first and knocks on the door with his head since his arms are full. Scarlet makes a gasp of worry while Luca laughs in wonder. Scarlet's grandmother opens the door, covered in blood and smiling like the sun. Scarlet widens her eyes with a shred of fear, but Jackson just smiles cheerfully and forwards in like this is a normal event. **

**"****Pigs blood." She says sweetly as she observes her granddaughter's concerned expression. Scarlet nods and gives an awkward smile as she forwards in with Luca in tow. She glances back at her grandmother who looks like a sweet, psychopathic, serial killer. "Sorry…" She mutters to Luca as they place their piles of wood in the corner of the room, next to the fire place on top of Jackson's little stack.**

**"****Haha…it's okay. I don't mind." Luca smiles brightly. **

**"****Luca." Jackson calls from behind the lounge. **

**"****Yes." **

**"****Will you play with me?" He asks sweetly, like the child he is. Scarlet frowns and goes to protest but Luca speaks first. **

**"****Love to." Luca walks over to the lounge.**

**"****You don't have to." Scarlet cocks an eyebrow. But Luca just ignores her and starts oh-ing and ah-ing over the things Jackson is showing him. "Phft…boys…" Scarlet scoffs and walks into the kitchen to help her mother and grandmother. She pauses in the door and looks back at her brother and Luca, playing happily on the floor together. Her stomach starts to churn with joy and sadness. ****_He's so good with Jackson_**. **She thinks to herself. ****_Grey can't even have a conversation with him_****. She forwards into the kitchen with her stomach fluttering and her head spinning with emotions. **


	13. Chapter 13

**_Chapter Thirteen _**

**_Sometimes the classics we love  
>need to be changed,<br>In order for us to be rid of our fear. _**

**"****She likes you, you know?" Jackson and Luca lay on their stomachs, playing with toy blocks and wooden figurines. **

**"****Really? How do you know?" Luca asks as he continues to build a mini castle. **

**"****Because of the way she looks at you. It's the same way my mum used to look at my dad." He says solemnly as he connects his castle to Luca's. **

**"****You would have been too young to remember things like that, wouldn't you?" Luca asks as he places a wooden princess doll on the top of the castle. **

**"****I remember." Jackson says. "I remember a lot of things." Luca smirks at him. **

**"****Is that so?" **

**"****It is." He replies, reminding Luca so much of Scarlet. "So…do you like her back?" He ask abruptly.**

**"****Um…maybe…" Luca says coyly. "She's engaged, so it wouldn't matter if I did." Luca mumbles with a hint of sadness in his undertone. **

**"****Yes it does." Jackson chimes. "She hates Grey. And when I say hate, I mean ****_hate!_**** She'd rather swallow glass then marry him." Jackson sits up and crosses his legs. **

**"****That's a bit extreme…" **

**"****They're her words."**

**"****Really?" **

**"****Yep. She fights about it all the time with mama and grandma. I think grandma is on Red's side though."**

**"****Whose side are you on?" Luca asks him.**

**"****Red's. I hate Grey too. I don't think he likes me…he doesn't talk to me and he ignores me most of the time. Plus Red hates him and I support her reasons." He says, placing a wooden king next to the princess. "I like you though, you're nice and you play with me. And Scarlet likes you and you're nice to her, unlike Grey." Jackson says without a care in the world. Luca widens his eyes in surprise, a little bit shocked at how open Jackson is being. **

**"****Thank you…I like you too." Luca says honestly and Jackson smiles at him. Scarlet strolls back into the room and sits down next to Luca.**

**"****What are you two up to?" She asks and picks up a doll. **

**"****We're building a castle." Jackson waves his hands over the block structure to show her. **

**"****Can I help?" She asks and Jackson nods his head. Scarlet starts building a little cottage while Luca picks up all the little figurines and examines them. **

**"****Who is this?" Luca laughs and rolls on his side to face Scarlet, holding up a little female figurine – wearing a red cloak. Scarlet takes it from Luca's hand and rubs her thumb over it. She stares at it for a bit and smiles. Luca calls it a memory smile, a smile where someone is deep in thought and remembers something funny or joyful about their past, that they hadn't thought about in a while. **

**"****It's me." Scarlet says as she examines all the chips and scratches on it – and on the other dolls. She decides what she'll be getting Jackson for his birthday now. Jackson looks over and reaches for the doll, Scarlet gives it to him hesitantly.**

**"****You can be red riding hood. Luca you can be the wolf." He passes Luca a wolf figurine.**

**"****Um…" Luca mumbles. "What are we playing?" He asks as he studies the little, black wolf in his hand. **

**"****Little red riding hood, and I'm going to be the …. Huntsman." He decides and picks up the huntsman figurine that resembles their father. **

**"****How do you play?" **

**"****You just follow the story." Jackson says 'matter of factly' like it is common knowledge. **

**"****I've never heard it before." Luca admits and Jackson glares at him, baffled that someone hadn't heard the story.**

**"****It's okay." Scarlet looks at Jackson. "I'll teach him." She reassures her perplexed little brother. Luca props himself up on an elbow and stares intently at Scarlet. "Okay…um…so, there once was a little girl named red riding hood." She starts. "One day, her mother sent her into the woods with a basket of goodies to take to her grandmother. She was told not to talk any strangers and to come straight home. Upon entering the woods a wolf started to stalk little red as she made her way to her grandma's. The wolf disguised himself and approached little red, unaware of the danger that lurked in front of her, she didn't listen to her mother's instruction and foolishly answered all his questions – including where she was heading. The wolf let little red go on her way but unknowing to her, took off ahead of her and reached her grandma's house before red does." Scarlet pauses and demonstrates with the dolls. "When little red reaches her grandma's cottage she knocks on the door. 'Come in.' her grandma calls. 'Is everything all right grandma?' She asks as she enters the house and walks to her grandmother's bedroom, to find the old women in bed – but she didn't quite look the same." Scarlet mimics the voices and Luca smiles. 'Oh oh…I'm all right dearie, I just fell a little under weather. Come here so I can get a better look at you.'" Scarlet drones in an old lady's voice as she continues to demonstrate with the dolls. "'Why grandma, what big ears you have!' Little red says as walks to the side of the bed. 'Oh oh, um…all the better to hear you with, my child.' She replies. 'But grandma, what big eyes you have.' Red. 'All the better to see you with, my dear.' Grandma. 'But grandma, what big hands you have.' Little red walks closer. 'All the better to hug you with.' Grandma. 'Oh, but grandma, what a large mouth you have!' 'All the better to eat you with!'" Scarlet tries to make her voice go deeper and Luca just laughs at her attempt. "Shut up…" She coughs. "Where was I? Oh yes. So…the wolf jumped out of bed in a single bound and ripped off the old lady's clothing. Little red screamed in fright and ran as fast as she could around the house, trying to escape the wolf. A huntsman who was nearby heard the screams and decided to investigate. He got there just in time to watch the wolf swallow little red whole. He ran in and wacked the old wolf on the back of the head with his axe, rendering him unconscious. Thinking that red could be saved, the huntsman got a pair of scissors and cut open the wolf's belly. Little red riding hood and her grandmother sprung out of the wolf's belly and rejoiced with the huntsman and thanked him dearly for saving their lives." Scarlet and Jackson mimic the scene. "The huntsman then filled the wolf's belly with rocks and sewed it shut again. When the wolf awakened her tried to run but the stones weighed him down. He fell to the ground and died. The huntsman skinned the wolf and took his fur home, while red riding hood and her grandmother lived happily ever after." Scarlet concludes her story. Luca claps slightly and cheers while hiding a hint of disgust for the ending of the story. **

**"****Jackson." Their mother calls. "Go wash up for lunch." Jackson moans and does a summersault backwards, running up the stairs to the bathroom. **

**"****Don't you get bored of the same story?" Luca sits up.**

**"****What do you mean?" Scarlet laughs slightly. Luca retakes the wolf figurine. **

**"****Why don't you make the wolf the hero for a change?" He asks as he places the wolf next to the red riding hood figurine. Scarlet chortles and leans against the wall to support herself. Luca doesn't look amused, so Scarlet stops and takes a couple of deep breathes. **

**"****Are you serious?" She asks. Luca just nods and rolls back over on his stomach. "Um…well…isn't obvious why no one in this town would make the wolf the hero?" She states the obvious. "A wolf is…is in capable of being a hero. All they do is kill, and install terror in everyone." Scarlet keeps her voice low so her grandmother and mother can't hear their conversation. Luca's nostrils flare and a slight tension begins to build in his shoulders. He shrugs the anger away, feeling to happy and tired, to bother getting angry with Scarlet. It just takes to much energy. **

**"****Maybe not all wolves are bad." He says. **

**"****Luca…" Scarlet mumbles with an 'are you serious' tone.**

**"****What's so difficult to believe about that?" He asks. "Maybe some wolves didn't ask to be wolves. Maybe they'd rather be normal. Have a normal life with a family, not worrying about who wants to kill you for being you…" Luca stares into oblivion, losing his train of thought. **

**"****Trying to kill ****_them_****?" Scarlet growls. "They're the ones that kill us." Scarlet shuts her eyes to block out the images from the other night. **

**"****Maybe it wasn't trying to kill you." Luca says thoughtfully. "Maybe it just thought you looked really pretty and just wanted to look at you again." Luca rolls on to his back and stares at the ceiling, while Scarlet glares at him like he's an idiot. **

**"****Phft…"**

**"****Is that so hard to imagine? Someone thinking you're so beautiful that they ripped through metal and wood just to get another glimpse at you."**

**"****Yeah, and scaring me half to death in the processes!" Scarlet grows angrier and angrier by the second as Luca keeps trying to defend the wolf. "I…I don't understand why your being so persistent in defending that ghastly creature." Scarlet picks up the wolf figurine and stares at it with hatred. **

**"****Ghastly? I was just making a suggestion. Trying to give you something better to think about." He looks at Scarlet. "Hatred takes up a lot of time and energy, as does fear. I just didn't want you to waste anymore of your life frightened of a creature that doesn't need to be feared." Scarlet was starting to soften her exterior but then Luca finished his sentence and her anger came rushing back in tenfold.**

**"****Doesn't need to be feared…" Scarlet throws her hands up in disbelief, to the fact that someone's mind even thinks like this. "That beast has killed dozens of us over the generations. And you just expect us to not fear it? Not hate it?" Scarlet snarls. Luca sits up with a sigh. **

**"****Is it so hard to comprehend that maybe it fears you just as much as you fear it?" He furrows his brow in frustration. "It could hate itself just as much as you do. Waking up every day wishing that it was different, wishing that it isn't the monster everyone fears it to be." Luca disputes, sighing and rubbing his face with his hands. Scarlet's anger continues to boil but something in the back of her mind scratches for her attention. Something that senses the melancholy and seriousness in Luca's voice. A part of her wants to agree with him, but a lifetime of anger and fear doesn't just go away in a minute. She closes her eyes and tries to calm herself down.**

**"****You must have been raised****_ very_**** differently." Scarlet says. "Because no one in this village would even joke about the thoughts you're having."**

**"****Actually I was raised the exact same as you." Luca breathes and Scarlet just scrunches up her face in confusion. Scarlet goes to argue some more but her mother's voice interrupts her. **

**"****Lunch." She calls from the kitchen. Luca shakes his head and stands up. **

**"****I have to go." He utters. "I'll be back later." He walks out the door before Scarlet can even get another word out. Her body goes to protest and chase after him, to pull him back inside and apologies, but her mind is just too confused and worked up to think straight.**

**"****Where's Luca?" Her grandmother comes up behind her. **

**"****Um…he had to run a few errands. He'll be back later." Scarlet stands and walks past her grandmother without looking at her.**

**"****Oh. Alright then." She follows her granddaughter into the kitchen and sits down at the table next to her. **


	14. Chapter 14

**_Chapter Fourteen _**

**_It is okay to let our hearts  
>decide what is best for us at times. <em>**

**Scarlet lays in the middle of her bed, scribbling in the back of her diary. Her heart and mind still at war, as to decide if Luca is right or not. She drops her diary on her stomach and rubs her temples. The fact that she argued with him to the point where he had to leave upsets her more. She doesn't want to fight with him and she doesn't want him to be angry with her. He's the only friend she's really had and part of her is dying to be more than friends.  
>"Argg…" She moans and flings herself out of bed. She pulls a dark purple dress out of one of her drawers and steps behind her dressing screen. She peels off her hunting gear and throws it over the screen, draping her skin in a purple fabric. She tightens the corset so it pulls in her waste and pushes up her bosom. She piles her hair into a coal and chestnut bun and collapses back on the bed, burying her face in the pillows and moaning loudly in frustration. The top of the stairs creak and moan as someone ascends them. Scarlet assumes that it is her grandmother and continues to remain flopped on the bed like a rag doll. <strong>

**"****May I come in?" Scarlet snaps her head and slides out of bed as Luca stands in the doorway. **

**"****Um…yes…" She stutters as she fixes up her hair. "How long have you been standing there for?"**

**"****Not long." He smirks and enters her room. "I'd like to apologies for the way I behaved before…" Luca starts but Scarlet jumps in.**

**"****No, no, no. I'm the one who should be apologising. I know you were only trying to make me feel better, and I thank you for that. I'm sorry for being so cynical about the whole thing." Scarlet's heart blurts out before her mind can even react. Luca smiles like he's stunned at Scarlet's turn around. **

**"****It's alright. I'm sorry as well." Luca apologies. Scarlet gives a small smile and then stares at the ground. "You look beautiful." Luca adds. Scarlet blushes and smirks. "I haven't seen you without your hood before." **

**"****Well believe it or not, I don't always wear it." Scarlet laughs. Luca smirks and nods his head, letting himself drift off as he gazes into Scarlet's emerald green orbs. **

**"****Shall we go down stairs for dinner?" Luca suggests, taking Scarlet by the hand. **

**"****We shall." Scarlet stares at their entwined hands. They walk down the creaky old stairs with Luca taking the lead. "Thank you." Scarlet mutters. Luca turns his head and cocks an eye brow with a lazy smile on his face. **

**"****What for?" **

**"****For the way you were with Jackson." Scarlet glances into the front room, where Jackson is sitting on the ground - drawing. "He hasn't really had a male figure in his life for a long time." Scarlet stares at her brother with sadness. **

**"****What about your fiancé?" Luca inquires, already knowing the answer. **

**"****He… doesn't…bother with him." She scowls, turning to the front door, taking her bow and quiver as she goes. Luca follows her as she storms round the back of the house. **

**"****Why not?" Luca asks, seeing opportunity to dig around in Scarlet's head. **

**"****I don't know. Ask him. I'm sure he'd give you some pathetic reason like, 'oh, oh, she has a brother? I didn't take notice, all I care about is making her my wife and controlling her for the rest of her life.'" She growls and mimics Grey's voice. "You know sometimes I just want to take his head and…and…argg…" Scarlet quickly draws and arrow and fires at the village wall that lines her back yard, hitting a bullseye on a target which has been painted on to the wall. Luca admires he shot and leans against the pile of freshly cut wood. "Sorry." Scarlet apologies for her little rage outbreak. But nowadays it isn't really a secret as to how she feels about Grey. **

**"****It's alright. If you keep that much rage inside it will make you sick. It's good to let it all out." Luca chimes. Scarlet closes her eyes and exhales loudly, counting to ten in her head as she goes. **

**"****What do you do to get rid of all your 'rage'?" Scarlet wonders as she loads another arrow, firing at another painted target on the wall, hitting a bullseye again. Luca shrugs and presses his lips into a thin line.**

**"****Well we all have our own techniques." He states. "You shoot things. And I…well…I just ventilate myself every month." He grins. **

**"****Really? Does it work?" **

**"****Seems to." Luca smirks.**

**"****Well sir, I commend you. You'll have to give me tips, because I can barely last a day before I need to shot something." Scarlet fires another arrow.**

**"****Well, it's not exactly easy. I just try and not let the little things bother me. Makes life a whole lot simpler." Luca recommends. Scarlet shrugs in agreement and continues to shoot at the wall. **

**"****Do you recommend anything else? Because, if you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly the person to let the little things slide." She fires another arrow. **

**"****Well…" Luca walks closer to her. Scarlet flinches to the left as she feels something fly past her ear. Her eyes flicker over all her targets. Wedged into the centre of one of her targets, is a steel blade. Scarlet whirls around in fury and glares at Luca. Luca smiles devilishly. **

**"****Are you trying to kill me?" She questions. **

**"****Darling, if I wanted to kill you, then you would be dead." Luca laughs, walking past her to retrieve his knife. "Plus, you were completely safe. I never miss." **

**"****Oh really?" Scarlet mumbles in disbelief. **

**"****Really. Choose anything, I'll hit it." Luca guarantees. Scarlet smirks and takes his offer. **

**"****Okay…" She spins around, trying to find something difficult. "Hit that." She points at the top of the roof, where the sides of the roof conjoin into a point. Luca smiles and nods, expecting her to choose something harder. He raises his arm above his hand and flicks his wrist, releasing the blade and sending it whistling through the air. Sure enough, he hits his target. The blade wedges itself in between the join in the roof. Scarlet rolls her eyes and crosses her arms. "Show off." She mumbles under her breath. Luca reveals his sharp teeth and laughs. **

**"****What was that?" He questions her. **

**"****Nothing." Scarlet says firmly, like she hadn't said anything. "Good luck getting that down." She smiles happily. Luca jumps onto the stack of wood that sits directly under the knife, but he's not taller enough to reach it, even with his height. Scarlet smiles as Luca tries to figure out how to remove his knife from the roof. "Not so tall now, are you?" Scarlet gloats cockily. Luca glances over his shoulder and smiles.**

**"****What?" **

**"****Oh, nothing." Scarlet grins. Luca studies his possibilities and estimates how far he is from the ground.**

**"****Move here." He insists and points to the corner of the house. Scarlet obeys and shuffles over to the edge of the house and leans against the wall, carefully avoiding the large protruding spikes. Once Scarlet is out of the way, Luca bends his knees and prepares to jump. He leaps into the air and grabs onto one of the spikes, pressing the soles of his boots into the wall. He reaches up with one hand and un-wedges his knife. He bites down on the handle and holds it in his mouth. Knowing that if he jumps back onto the stack, it will crumble underneath him, he decides to jump over it. Luca bends his knees against the wall and pushes off it with extreme force. Scarlet gasps and also pushes away from the wall and covers her face with her hands, not want to watch Luca hurt himself. Luca glides through the air, doing a flip and landing gracefully on his feet. "Ta-da…" Luca bows and pretends to thank an invisible crowd, waving and blowing kisses. Scarlet peeks through her fingers, breathing heavily in worry. She doesn't bother to ask how he his. His cocky smile and self-confident attitude already tell her the answer. **

**"****Oh my god." She breathes and grabs her chest. Luca stops thanking his crowd of invisible people and jogs over to her. **

**"****You alright?" He grabs her shoulders, smiling like a fool, holding in the laughter. **

**"****You're not funny." She insists and buries her face in her hands. "You could have seriously hurt yourself." She runs her fingers through her hair. **

**"****But I didn't." He laughs and hugs her. "There, there." He pats her on the back. Scarlet wraps her arms around Luca and hugs him back, surprising herself and him. Scarlet soaks up his warmth and breathes in his sent of pine trees, forest air, and clovers. "There's no need to worry about me." He releases Scarlet from his grip and nudges her with his shoulder. She pushes him back and smirks whilst rolling her eyes. **

**"****Jerk." She mumbles. "No more throwing knives and back-flipping off the house." She commands. Luca pouts and nods his head. "Come on, dinner will be ready." She turns to walk away. Luca skips past her. **

**"****Excellent." He says gleefully. "I'm starved." They proceed into the house, Scarlet leaving her quiver and bow beside the doorframe. **

**"****Go wash up for dinner, you two." Scarlet's grandmother calls from the kitchen.**

**"****Yes grandmother." Scarlet replies. She takes Luca by the hand and leads him up stairs. They walk straight instead of turning right, which would have led them to Scarlet's bedroom. Scarlet opens the bathroom door and fills the basin with warm water. She rinses her hands and face and pats them dry with a cloth that hangs on the railing beside the basin. "You can wash up." She says to Luca, as she dusts off the front of his shirt, which as a trace of dirt on it. She blushes when she realises what she is doing and retracts her hand quickly. "Sorry." She breathes and steps out of his way. **

**"****It's alright." He reassures with a lazy smile. **

**"****I'll be down stairs." Scarlet walks out of the bathroom and pauses at the top of the stairs. She feels her hair and decides to make a quick detour to her room. She pulls her hair out of the bun and brushes it out. She pulls the front of it back and pins it back, pulling an equal amount of hair over each shoulder and letting it trail down her front. She races back down stairs, with Luca still in the bathroom. Scarlet quickly sets the table, like she does every other night, except she adds another place setting. She calls her brother to the table, who comes willingly. Luca follows in not long after Jackson, taking a place next to him, but making sure it was alright with Scarlet first, who nodded happily. Scarlet takes her place at the table and her mother and grandmother join them, bringing the food with them. **


	15. Chapter 15

**_Chapter Fifteen _**

**_Without a family, to love and support you,  
>one may become lost and empty.<br>With no one to fill that emptiness,  
>one may become soulless and miserable. <em>**

**At first the atmosphere of the room felt unbalanced, to the feel of a fifth person in the house. But now, everyone, despite some's best efforts not to, feels a sense of 'wholeness'. A feeling that was once lost to this family. Luca brings a certain aura to the table, one that washes joy and delight over everyone, one that seems to relax the whole room and relieve every one of the tension that had been growing inside them for quite some time. He made a family, which once was broken, feel whole again. Just by joining them for dinner. Nobody has started a conversation yet, they all just enjoy their meals. Luca and Scarlet occasionally glance at each other and smile. They thought that their glances were private, but Scarlet's grandmother observes everything, quietly.  
>"So, Luca. Have you found work yet?" Scarlet's grandmother asks. Luca looks up from his food and swallows before answering. <strong>

**"****Uh…yes. I got a job as a woodcutter." He states and glances at Scarlet, thinking that she would of told them already. **

**"****Hmm…interesting. When do you start?" She asks.**

**"****Tomorrow." He replies. Scarlet's grandmother smiles and takes another mouthful of food. **

**"****Is your father a woodcutter?" She asks, after a sip of water. Luca coughs slightly and chokes on the piece of meat that he was in the process of swallowing. The question had gotten him off guard. He wasn't really in the mood to discuss his family, and hadn't really expected anyone to ask. But then again, he'd probably want to know that same thing, if a stranger was in his house. **

**"****Um…" He gulps down a mouthful of water. "No. He wasn't." He pushes his plate away, notifying that he is finished. "Ah…he was a…blacksmith." Luca adds, knowing that the old lady probably wasn't going to let the question go. **

**"****Was?" Scarlet's mother chimes in.**

**"****Yes. Was." Luca repeats, avoiding eye contact with everyone. Scarlet looks up from her plate and stares at Luca with sadness engulfing her eyes. She feels a pang in her chest, knowing that Luca had also lost his father. Scarlet directs her gaze to her mother and grandmother, and scowls at them. Speaking with her eyes, Scarlet tells them not to ask any more questions about the matter. They oblige silently. Jackson finishes what's on his plate and pushes it away, just like Luca did.**

**"****What's for desert?" He chimes happily. Everyone at the table looks at him and laughs. **

**"****Muffins." His grandmother replies and stands, taking up her plate and Jackson's. She reaches for Luca's, but he stands up in protest.**

**"****Oh no. Please, allow me." He reaches for the plates she'd already collected.**

**"****Oh, it's all right dear. I can manage."**

**"****Oh, but I insist." Luca throws her one of his charming smiles, and she slowly gives me the plates. "Are you finished?" He asks Scarlet, who smiles and hands him her plate. He then looks at Scarlet's mother, who also hands him her plate. He strolls into the kitchen, placing the stack of plates on the side of the sink. He empties any scraps in to the bin next to him, but there's very little scraps. **

**"****You can just leave them." Scarlet's mother comes up behind him. **

**"****It's alright, I don't mind." He smiles. **

**"****Well I insist that you leave them and go join the others." She says firmly. **

**"****But…" Luca goes to protest. **

**"****But nothing. You're a guest in this house. Go and join the others." She insists and shos him away from the sink. **

**"****Are you sure?" Luca checks as he is being pushed out of the kitchen.**

**"****Yes, yes, yes. I'm sure, now go." She shoves him out of the kitchen and returns to the sink. Luca walks back out to find everyone gone from the table. He follows their voices into the front room. Jackson is laying on his stomach, colouring something on a piece of paper. Scarlet is sitting on the lounge with her knees pulled up and tucked under her chin. And their grandmother sits in a rocking chair in the corner of the room, knitting. **

**"****Red..." Jackson turns to his sister and smiles. "Can I have another one?" Jackson stretches his grin from ear to ear. **

**"****Argg…" Scarlet moans as Luca takes a place next to her. "Do you have to?" **

**"****Yes! Please, please, please…" Jackson begs. Luca smiles and turns to Scarlet. She rolls her eyes and turns to Luca, who cocks an eyebrow in confusion. **

**"****Fine…" She breathes. "What do you want?" **

**"****A bear!" Jackson rejoices. **

**"****What?" Luca utters, completely confused. **

**"****Go and get me my stuff from upstairs then." Scarlet tells her brother, who leaps to his feet and sprints up the stairs.**

**"****Um…" Luca mumbles, waiting for an explanation. **

**"****He likes to colour things in." She states and picks up a piece of paper off the floor and shows Luca. "See…" She shows him a drawing of a rabbit, which Jackson had coloured in brown and white.**

**"****He's a talented drawer." Luca complements. **

**"****Ha." Scarlet laughs. "He can't draw." She laughs a little harder. "I draw him the pictures and he colours them in."**

**"****Ah…that makes more sense, now." Luca realizes. Jackson comes scampering back into the room with a drawing book and a black velvet pouch. He passes them to his sister and sits on the ground in front of her, waiting patiently, like a puppy dog. Luca watches her carefully as she opens the pouch and retrieves to lead pencils from it. She folds over a new page and starts drawing. Luca and Jackson watch Scarlet attentively as she sketches in her book.**

**"****Can you both stop?" She glares at Luca and her brother. **

**"****Stop what?" Luca asks.**

**"****Staring at me like I'm something to eat." She replies. Luca laughs and Jackson just rolls back on to his stomach. "If your eyes get any bigger, you'll be related to an owl." Scarlet says to Luca. Jackson thinks it's the funniest thing he's ever heard and starts pounding the floor with his fists, in a fit of laughter. Luca just beams brightly at Scarlet and widens his eyes in a freakish manner. Scarlet scrunches up her face, as she pictures Luca out of a horror story. "Stop it!" She squirms and push her feet against Luca's thigh.**

**"****Stop what?" Luca jokingly asks and continues to widen his eyes, which Scarlet thought to be impossible to get them any wider. Scarlet kicks him lightly and begins to laughs as well. Luca grabs her by the ankles and pulls her legs over his lap. She gasps slightly and they all continue to laugh. **

**"****Seriously." She begins to Luca once she's stopped laughing. "Stop it."**

**"****Alright…" Luca gazes up at the ceiling and blinks rapidly for a few seconds. **

**"****Thank you." She continues to sketch away. After five more minutes, Scarlet examines her work and rips the page out of her book and holds it up for her brother to see. "Happy?" She asks him. He nods gleefully and smiles at Scarlet's detailed but simple drawing. Luca admires her work and smirks. **

**"****You're very talented." He complements. **

**"****Thank you." She says as she pass the drawing to her brother. Who begins going through his selection of coloured pencils, deciding which ones to use. Luca gently scratches at the fabric of Scarlet's dress whilst he watches Jackson colour in. He'd decided on using brown and black, and green for the grass and the trees. **

**"****Any other secret talents I don't know about?" Luca queries. Scarlet smirks and shakes her head. **

**"****Nope."**

**"****Yes she does!" Jackson proclaims from the ground. "She can sing." **

**"****Hush…" Scarlet hisses at her brother. **

**"****Yes, she has a lovely voice." Her grandmother chimes from the corner of the room. "Sing us a song, darling." **

**"****Grandmother…" Scarlet whines. **

**"****I'd love to hear a song." Luca adds and beams at her.**

**"****Yay…" Jackson cheers quietly. "Sing the lullaby!" Scarlet moans and rest her head on the arm of the lounge, whilst Luca continues to play with her dress. **

**"**_Hush child, the darkness will rise from the deep.  
>And carry you down in to sleep, child.<br>The darkness will rise from the deep.  
>And carry you down into sleep." <em>**Scarlet's silvery voice echo's. Luca leans his head back against the lounge and let's himself slip into Scarlet's trance. **  
>"<em>The mother of the summer fields,<em>******_  
><em>**_the goddess of the silver moon.  
>The father of the summer dew,<br>the hunter of the winter snow_**_.  
><em>**_They'll guide you into peaceful sleep,  
>as you rest beneath the wondrous trees<em>**_." _****Luca's eyes flutter shut as Scarlet's velvet voice washes over him.  
><strong>**_"_****Jackson yawns and so does Luca.**_  
>"Hush child, the darkness will rise from the deep.<br>And carry you down into sleep, child.  
>The darkness will rise from the deep.<br>And carry you down into sleep." _**Scarlet lightly hums the rest of the tune as Luca's breathing slows and his hands stop play with the fabric of Scarlet's dress. Jackson yawns a few more times and his colouring in begins to become lazy. **

**"****Alright, time for bed you." Scarlet's mother enters the room and lifts Jackson into her arms. Scarlet's eyes flutter shut as well and she drifts in and out of consciousness. "I'm going to bed." Scarlet's mother says to her mother. **

**"****All right dear." She smiles sweetly. "I'll lock up." She walks upstairs with Jackson in her arms, leaving her mother, daughter and Luca downstairs. She felt strange leaving them alone with Luca, but he hasn't given her any reason for her to fear him. Luca and Scarlet fall asleep on the lounge while her grandmother folds away her knitting and locks the house up. Darkness descends in the room as she begins to blow out the candles that were holding the shadows at bay. Scarlet murmurs something in her sleep but none of it is audible. She smiles at her granddaughter and kisses her gently on the forehead. She glances at Luca and decides that her granddaughter is safe with him. She takes up a hand candle and float up the stairs, leaving the bottom floor of the house in darkness. **


	16. Chapter 16

**_Chapter Sixteen _**

**_It takes bravery to choose  
>the beast<br>over the man._**

**Luca feels something move across his lap as his mind plunges out of comatose. His autumn eyes glow with a golden tinge as they flicker open. His eyes dance around the dark room until they land on the body sleeping across him. Despite the darkness, Luca can see everything perfectly. He can see the way Scarlet snuggles the lounge cushion to her chest, and also the way she shivers against the coolness of the room. He slides out from underneath her legs and stands up. He stretches his long body and yawns, rolling his neck and shoulders – whilst cracking noise echo in the room. He pry's the cushion from Scarlet's grip and scoops her up in his arms. She shives slightly and then snuggles into Luca's chest to absorb his unnatural warmth. He smirks and tries not to laugh, as he glides up the creaky stairs without a sound. He moves into Scarlet's room and closes the door over quietly. He half slides Scarlet over his shoulder as he pulls down then blankets and the sheets. Luca lays Scarlet gently in the centre of the bed and drags the covers back over the top of her. He smiles and kisses her lightly on the forehead. He turns and goes to walk out the door but Scarlet starts mumbling something. Her mumbles soon turns into quiet whimpers and she begins thrashing around in the sheets. Luca walks back over to her and sits on the side of the bed whilst holding her shoulders down. Her murmurs start to grow louder, and in fear of her waking up the rest of the house, Luca lays next to her and tries to stop her thrashing around.  
>"Hey." He whispers. "Scarlet…" She doesn't wake but she stops thrashing, but her whimpering continues. "Shh…you're okay." He reassures but it doesn't seem to have any effect. "Shh…shh…you're alright. You're alright." Luca soothe. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you. I promise." He kisses her on the forehead again. She scrunches up her face for a second, and then all her muscles relax and her whimpering ceases. She curls up against Luca's warm body and wraps the blanket around her face. Luca smirks. <strong>**_Amazing what people can do in their sleep_****. Luca thinks. ****_And she won't even remember this in the morning. _****Luca closes his eyes and let's himself drift into oblivion, as Scarlet snuggles up in his arms. Sleep seldom came easy to him, but tonight none of his demons stood in the way of his slumber. **


	17. Chapter 17

**_Chapter Seventeen _**

**_Fear,  
>will always show you<br>what people really are._**

**The sun rises earlier than usual, Grey thought to himself, as he stares into a shaft of brightness that splits through the distant, foreboding clouds. He tightens his gloved hand around the handle of his double-sided hunting axe and turns to his pack, who are busy chatting to each other and hobbling from one foot to the other to keep themselves warm.  
>"Are you all ready?" He calls so he can be heard be everyone. Everyone mumbles in agreement but most of them hold a trace of fear and doubtfulness in their eyes. "Let's go then. We've wasted enough time already." He mumbles the last part coldly. Without thinking, the villagers form an arrow head, with Grey as the point. They march through the familiar terrain which they proceed through every other morning and head into a clearing. Dew covered grass sweeps an open field that is about hundred metres from the town wall. A fortified farmhouse stands solitary in the centre of the field. A man waves to the pack as they stalk through the field. Grey returns his wave – like he does every morning and continues to lead his pack to the menacing forest. Mr Ulfric watches the men leave his field and then he saunters back inside his house. Ulfric runs the farm by himself. Though he's slightly de-attached from the rest of the town, everyone still respects him and unknowingly doesn't question the fact that he lives by himself. No one even cares that he seldom seeks refugee in the town come wolfstime. No one ever gives him a second thought come wolfstime, but then again, that applies to everyone else. When that moon rises everyone looks out for number one and their direct family. <strong>

**The small room is dull with a grey light that seems to be emitting from nowhere. The sun isn't up high enough for the early golden rays to seep through the tiny cracks in the closed window shutters, and now candles are lit. The light just is. Scarlet stirs slightly. Her internal clock starts buzzing throughout her whole body. She inhales deeply and stretches her right arm across the bed, gripping the soft fabric that lay beneath her fingers. She rests her hand above the fabric for a few seconds and then it begins to rise and fall. Her eyes flicker open slowly, adjusting quickly to the darkness of the room. She observes her surroundings without moving. She was curled up next to someone, nestled into their side. Her eyes widen in fear as she lifts her head slightly, to look up at her companion. His left arm drapes over his eyes whilst his right his slung around Scarlet's waist, in a protective and affectionate manner. Every few breaths her snores delicately and quietly. Scarlet smiles warmly at her sleeping giant and sighs quietly with relief as she realises her companion isn't Grey. The thought of waking up to him makes her sick with disgust, but at the same moment an abundance of guilt fills her stomach and starts to ripple through her body, like water rippling once a stone has been plunged into the stillness of the atmosphere. She wriggles out of Luca's strong but gentle grip, disturbing the peaceful aura of the room and waking the sleeping giant as she goes. Luca lifts his arm off his face and tilts his head to stare at Scarlet through startled, autumn eyes.  
>"Morning beautiful…" Luca mumbles and yawns a couple of times. Scarlet blushes and tucks her hair behind her ears. She then widens her eyes and gives herself a mental shaking. '<strong>**_Wake up to herself! You may hate the man you're being forced to marry, but that's no excuse to go about with men you only just meet and letting them stay in your bed!' _****She mentally yells at herself and slides out of bed without a word. '****_Think of what people will say…you'll disgrace your family! You'll be the village harlot!' _****Scarlet buries her face in her hands and tries to drown out the little (but correct) voice in her head. She moans and wipes the sleep from her eyes. "You alright?" Luca asks quietly and props himself up on his elbows. Scarlet turns and places her hands on her hips and looks anywhere but at Luca.**

**"****Um…what happened?" She asks and rubs her eyes again, trying to recall last night's events. **

**"****Nothing." Luca rolls his neck and drops himself back on the bed, stretching out his long body. **

**"****Then why are you in my bed?" Scarlet questions and remembers drifting off on the couch. **

**"****Oh." Luca yawns. "We fell asleep and everyone went to bed. I woke up, you were cold, I carried you to bed." He states and swings his legs out of the bed. **

**"****So why are you in my bed?" Scarlet glares at the back of his head. **

**"****Well I was going back downstairs, when you started whimpering and thrashing around." Luca starts. Scarlet's cheeks burn red with embarrassment. **

**"****Really…" Scarlet whines in disbelief.**

**"****Really." Luca stretches again. "I tried to calm you down. In fear of you waking the whole house, I lied next to you, you then snuggled up and went to sleep." Luca smirks. Scarlet frowns and scorns herself. "Sorry if I made you uncomfortable…" Luca ambles over to her and reaches for her hand, gripping it in his big one. "Are you alright?" He asks again and searches her face. **

**"****Yes…" She mumbles and nods her head slowly, repeating to herself that nothing bad or dishonourable happened. **

**"****Alright then…" Luca lifts Scarlet's hand and kisses it lightly. His rough whiskers tickle the back of her hand and she flinches slightly and smirks. "I have to go. Thank you for letting me stay in your house. Please thank your mother and grandmother for dinner for me." He smiles and brushes his lips against Scarlet's cheek. His whiskers tickle her again and she smiles, ducking her head down to avoid eye contact. She nods as Luca lets go of her hand and walks quietly out the door and down the stairs. When she hears the front door open and close she lets out a long breath, not realising she'd been holding it. She rubs her temples and sighs, deciding to shut her brain off for a while.  
>She pulls on a light blue dress after discarding her purple one. She pulls the long sleeves down over her knuckles as the morning air is chilly. She wanders quietly down the stairs, not waking the rest of the household. She glances at her bow and quiver and decides that she doesn't feel like hunting today. Scarlet gathers up her drawing things instead and wanders out the door. She inhales the crisp morning air and walks off the porch, making her way over to the wall that Luca and she had climbed over yesterday. She ascends the stairs and sits down on the walkway of the wall, crossing her legs and leaning against the wooden barricade. She sets up her little drawing station and watches the sun rise above the blackening blanket of clouds that seem to be threatening to consume her small town and the surrounding forest. <strong>


	18. Chapter 18

**_Chapter Eighteen _**

**_To let a fool kiss you is stupid.  
>To let a kiss fool you is worse. <em>**

**Scarlet jumps slightly as the wolf bells begin to chime loudly. She gently discards the things she had in her lap and stands abruptly. Her brow furrows in confusion as she looks at the bell tower. The only time those bells ring is during the mornings of wolfstime or…when there is an attack. Scarlet's heart begins to pound a little harder with dread. She follows the corridor on the wall and walks towards the town gates. As she walks she can begin to hear chatter from the streets below. People peek out their windows and slowly and cautiously exit their homes, wary of their surroundings as they all pile into the main street and shuffle curiously towards the gate. Scarlet can see Grey's hunting party returning to meet the crowd of curious and frightened villagers.  
>"Get me a healer! Now!" Someone wails from the gate. <strong>

**"****What happened?" Multiple people call. And the others mumble in agreement. **

**"****We killed it! We killed the wolf!" The hunting party responds. The mob of villagers gasp in disbelief and shock****.** **They all turn to each other in bewilderment, some begin to mumble scepticism others begin to sob. Overall there is a huge cheer of relief. Scarlet stumbles a bit and grabs onto wall for support. Her breath is caught in her throat and eyes begin to water. She slides down out of site, resting against the support guards, covering her mouth with her covered hands. A few tears stream down her cheeks, making her shiver. She starts to sob but her sobs soon turn into whimpers of relief. She throws her head back and lets a relieved and grateful smile grace her lips. **

**"****Thank you…" She whispers. "Thank you…" She squeezes her eyes shut and banishes all terrifying thoughts from her mind. No longer would that foul beast plague her village or mind. She breathes harshly and looks around, only seeing wood, she listens to rejoicing crowd bellow. She picks herself up and begins to run back the way she came. Her mother, brother and grandmother have made their way out of the house by this time. Fear consumes the expressions. "Mother!" She calls as she races to the top of the stairs. They all look up at her as she slows down enough to turn on to the stairs. She races down them, stumbling occasionally when she misses a step. "Mother! Mother!" She calls again. **

**"****What's happened?" Her mother cringes and braces herself for bad news, as do her brother and grandmother. **

**"****It's dead!" She shouts joyously. "It's dead, it's dead! They killed it!" She happily informs them. "The wolf is dead!" Her mother and grandmother turn to each other, blank expressions cover bother their faces. Tears stream down bother their faces before a smile graces their lips. They both scream in joy as Scarlet reaches them. Scarlet's mother holds her arms open for her daughter and she runs into the willing. The two hug and laugh with relief as Jackson is scooped into his grandmother's arms. Scarlet's mother pulls her away slightly and looks at her happy but tear streaked face. All the pain, disagreements, fighting, and tension seemed to just float away from the pair. Nothing else mattered. She looked at her daughter's face, not remembering a time where she looked happier. She had missed her daughter's smile, and wished it would never leave her lips again. The whole family hugged and rejoiced some more. **

**"****Scarlet." A voice breaks through the celebrating. Scarlet turns to find Grey walking towards them. Despite her disgust, her smile does not leave her face. Not even Grey could ruin her day now. "I take it all heard?" He asks and the four nod in sync. **

**"****Tell us what happened?" Scarlet's mother asks and releases her daughter from her grip. **

**"****We've been tracking it since it attacked Scarlet. We finally found its lair up in the mountains, amount the abounded monastery." Grey comes closer. "We cornered it, but it put up a fight, Henry is hurt pretty badly. But it looks like he'll live. We roped it and I cut its godforsaken head clean off." Grey proclaims, proud of himself. **

**"****We are all forever in you debt…" Scarlet's mother says. Astonished that this is even happening. **

**"****Well I wasn't going to let that foul beast attack my wife and get away with it." He looks down on Scarlet and smiles, pulling her closer to him by the waist. He tucks a finger under her chin and lifts her lips to his. Scarlet's eyes remain open in shock whilst their lips interlock. She goes to resist and protest but her muscles disallow it. Her mother smiles happily but her grandmother and brother's smiles fade from their faces. They glance at each in disapproval, but they remain silent. No one was going to tell the wolf slayer no. When Grey pulls away Scarlet immediately looks down. She wants to scream and pull away from him but she can't bring herself to do it. She feels an emptiness inside. Like her soul had just left her body, her spark of fight had finally been extinguished. She felt hollow and broken. What was she supposed to do now? How was she supposed to get of marrying him now? Grey was loved by the whole town before….now nothing would be out of his reach. The only one to ever kill the wolf. Why did it have to be Grey? Why couldn't it be anyone else? Scarlet remains silent as the five of them enter the house. Her mother bounces into the house with an aura of achievement and joy in her step. Grey has Scarlet tucked under his arm and they forward in the house together. Jackson and his grandmother exchange glances again and Jackson squeezes her hand in confusion. He goes to protest but she holds a hand up to silence him, knowing only bad things will come of it.  
>Scarlet was wrong…..Grey could ruin her day. <strong>


	19. Chapter 19

**_Chapter Nineteen _**

**_We are only gifted with one spark of … life,  
>a will to fight.<br>If you lose that spark … life,  
>isn't worth living,<em>**

**Jackson watches his sister carefully from the staircase. Grey has his arm wrapped around her as they sit on the lounge, with one foot pressed into the edge of the coffee table, rubbing mud everywhere. He sits there with a smug, arrogant look plastered across his face. A sense of victory and achievement drift off him. While Scarlet's face looks the complete opposite. She looks more like a hollowed out shell. Technically speaking Scarlet is sitting on the lounge, but her spirit seems to of drifted somewhere else, her eyes stare blankly ahead – glazed over like the dead.  
>"There'll be a feast tonight. At the tavern." Grey informs the rest of the house. Scarlet's mother and grandmother are hidden out of site in the kitchen, they mumble in acknowledgement, more Scarlet's mother then grandmother, though. Her mother tends to Grey, bringing him drink and food, acting like he's the king. Though he just as well might be from now, Scarlet and her grandmother think. Grey could probably get away with murder now, and no one would accuse him. Her grandmother goes about her usual routine, ignoring the events that have happened. She places freshly backed muffins in the basket that Scarlet uses and writes a list of everyone she has to deliver them to. Maybe it would be better if she got Scarlet out of the house, she thought. <strong>

** "****Scarlet, honey." She walks into the room, basket in hand. "Would you go deliver these for me?" She extends the basket out to Scarlet. Scarlet turns her head slowly, not really taking in anything that was happening around her. She looks at her grandmother and then at the basket, realising what she had to do. She reaches for the basket and goes to stand, but Grey keeps her in place next to him. **

**"****Scarlet has been through a lot. She needs time to rest, in light of these events." Grey says. "I'm sure Jackson could manage it for today…" He half turns his head to incline to the boy on the stairs. Scarlet's grandmother drops her sweet smile and peels off her façade. **

**"****I agree that she's been through a lot. But Jackson has been through the exact same, he was in that trap too!" She tries not to raise her voice. Grey raises an eyebrow at her tone, not appreciating being spoken back to. Before Grey or the old lady can get another word out, Jackson jumps up and stomps down the stairs.**

**"****It's okay gran." He chimes innocently. "I'll do it." He reaches for the basket and takes it. **

**"****Are you sure?" She suspiciously questions her grandson. **

**"****Yes. I'm sure." He says and forces a smile. **

**"****Alright then…" She looks at her granddaughter, who stares back longingly, and then spitefully at Grey. Jackson walks to the front door after giving his sister a side glance, his grandmother walks with him. When they're on the porch and out of hearing range, the old lady crosses her arms and cocks an eyebrow at the boy. "What are you doing?" She asks her grandson in a questioning tone. He smiles at his grandmother.**

**"****Don't worry, I have a plan." He reassures. She rolls her eyes. **

**"****Really? And what plan would that be?" She sarcastically asks. **

**"****You'll see." He says before leaping off the porch, waving goodbye. His grandmother watches him until he's out of site and then she walks back inside. Jackson reads the lists and quickly delivers all the goodies, well almost all of them. After that he makes his way to the inn. There he finds Mr Coppard standing out the front of the old building, he smiles and waves at him.**

**"****Good morning, Jackson." He begins. "Wonderful day isn't it?" He asks but doesn't expect an answer back. "Say, I do I get myself onto your grandmother's goodie list." He eyes off the basket of muffins that Jackson holds to his side. Jackson glances at the basket and smiles. **

**"****You'll have to ask her." He smiles cheerfully. "But I'm willing to make a deal with you for one." Jackson pulls off the red and white checkered tea towel that covers the contents of the basket. Mr Coppard looks into the basket, overwhelmed by the smell of chocolate, vanilla, apple and cinnamon. He smiles and eyes off the boy. **

**"****What kind of deal?" **

**"****I just want to know where Luca is." **

**"****The stranger?" Mr Coppard asks and furrows his brow.**

**"****Yes." **

**"****Um…" Coppard crosses his arms and glares at the boy with suspicion. "Why do you want to know where he is?" **

**"****He did some stuff around the house…my grandma wants to thank him." Jackson says simply. **

**"****Oh. Alright then…" Mr Coppard shrugs. He has no other reason to believe otherwise. "Um…well he's not here. He came by early this morning and then left again. He was carrying an axe. I don't know where he is now." Coppard informs. Jackson rolls his eyes and silently holds up his end of the bargain. Mr Coppard walks away to the town square with a chocolate muffin in hand. Jackson looks around and tries to rack his brain for any clues as to where Luca may be. **

**"****Think. Think…" Jackson starts to wander towards the front gate, thinking about where to find Luca. "An axe…" He continues to stroll through the ecstatic town, avoiding people dancing around. He glances up at the wide, wooden gate. Two men, father and son, are dragging a cart full of chopped logs. Jackson's eyes lighten in enlightenment and he runs over to them. "Excuse me. Hello. Mr Volgosung." Jackson calls for their attention. They look over at him, after they let the cart down and dust off their hands. **

**"****Yes?" Mr Volgosung half smiles at the little boy running towards him. **

**"****Hi. I was just wondering if you knew where Luca is." Jackson smiles. The father and son glance at each other and then back at Jackson. **

** "****Luca?" Mr Volgosung questions. **

**"****Oh…um…the stranger. I thought he got a job as a wood cutter…" Jackson mumbles. **

**"****Oh…yeah, him." Volgosung rolls his eyes. "I don't know where he is." He admits stubbornly. Jackson makes a face of disappointment, almost looking like someone had just stolen his favourite toy and broken it in front of him. The woodcutter's son takes note of the little boy and glances at his father. **

**"****I think I saw him walking towards the pine field." The son announces, unsteadily. Jackson's face brightens and he nods at the pair.**

**"****Thank you." He says to the son and takes off into the woods. **

**"****Hey!" Mr Volgosung calls out. "Kid wait!" He goes to chase after him, a lifetime of looking out for people will do that to you. **

**"****Dad, let him go. It's not like the wolf is going to get him." He looks at the enthusiastic hunting party that is outside the tavern, placing a wolf's head on a spike. Mr Volgosung steals his eyes away from the boy disappearing into the shadows of the forest, and turns to face the direction his son his looking in. **

**"****I'm not worried about the wolf." **


End file.
